Pursuance
by KosagiNoLegion
Summary: The wicked flee where no man pursueth... A Chounoryouku Hattori Heiji Fic: Completed!
1. A Sailing We Will Go

Pursuance: Part 1 – A Sailing We Will Go: In which Hattori and family take a vacation.   
A Detective Conan/Chounouryoku Tantei Heiji Heiji Fanfic (Psychic Detective Heiji)   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements:   
All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. And apologies for not putting this in last time I posted. *sigh*

* * *

(email from Kazuha to Ran)   
December 12 

My dear Ran, 

I think you'll understand what I mean when I say that BOYS ARE A PAIN! Between Shinichi and Heiji I'm not sure which is more pathetic. At least Shinichi has the excuse of not being around for not telling you when something's wrong. Heiji, though - Mr. Bigshot toughguy detective - is always here and he _knows_ he could tell _me_! But no, he has to go and hide it. 

To tell the truth, I don't know why it bothers me so much. I mean, we've been friends since we were practically babies and it isn't like he's ever been much for saying when he's hurt or upset. Still, I can usually find out what's wrong despite his best efforts. Of course, most of his real upsets are his father's fault and it's always obvious when he and Uncle Heizo aren't getting along. This seems like it's deeper, closer to the heart. If I didn't know better I'd think you'd dumped him or something. (No, no, I know you didn't. You convinced me a long while back that you two weren't dating.) 

It all started a few months ago. After that time he went up to Tokyo when we went shopping. He got home so incredibly late and he never explained why – to me, his father _or_ his Mom. That last is the really weird part. Heiji might not have told Uncle Heizo, but he doesn't usually keep secrets from his Mom. He hasn't said a word to her and I know she's as – or more – worried about it. 

Then there was that trip we took last month. You remember, the haunted house party? There were a few times he acted like he was going to jump right out of his skin. Worse, ever since then he keeps muttering something under his breath when he thinks no one's there to hear him. Something about someone named 'Furanki". Between that and the static shocks I keep getting around him I almost think he's possessed or something. 

I suppose I'd worry more if he weren't solving cases. If anything, though, he seems to be more active than ever. It's like he has a sense for where a murder's been committed, and he's driven to solve them. He's always hated murder, but now, it's like there's something personal. 

Anyway, I wanted to tell you we aren't going to make that outing next week. Uncle Heizo suddenly decided that he needed a vacation and he invited me to come along with the family. It sounds weird to go on a cruise in the middle of winter, but that's what we're doing. I wonder what he's up to? 

Regards, 

Kazuha 

*** 

(Email from Heiji to Shinichi, by way of Agasa-Hakase's address)   
December 15 

Hey Kudo, 

What is it about girls that make them think you have to tell 'em _every_ blessed detail of your life? Kazuha's sulking at me because she thinks I've got a problem and won't tell her. Okay, so I _do_ have a problem and I'm not telling her but still I can't possibly tell her I see ghosts. I especially can't tell her _why_. Not when the explanation would mean telling her about 'them'. Not when she might let something slip that'd put her in danger. I'm still praying they haven't figured out what happened at the lab that day Ai-chan and I visited. 

Speaking of which Tell Ai to do some research on grims. That's what I think Franky is. And before you ask, yes, he's still hanging around. (I think it's a he. I haven't bothered to take a close look.) Having a headless dog sitting beside you all the time can be distracting, too. It's hard enough paying attention to the teacher when there's a suicide sitting five feet away from me sobbing his eyes out. I'm going to have to see what I can do for the poor slob. His brains leaking down his face is starting to get distracting. Wonder where he got the gun from anyway? There's no doubt he killed himself – too many witnesses saw him – but maybe if I find out why he'll leave me alone? Sorry. I'm rambling again, aren't I? 

Did I tell you Dad's taking us on a vacation? I don't know what's up with him, but I think some letter he got a week back has something to do with it. He, mom, Kazuha and I are going on a cruise ship down to Hawaii. I'll keep in touch, of course. There's supposed to be a computer with satellite internet access in our suite. Sweet, huh? 

Oh, and would you pass my thanks on to Agasa-hakase? That watch and sweatband he made for me is a lifesaver. I doubt Kazuha would agree – seems like she's the one who gets the static shock off me most often – but not having to worry about picking up people's thoughts or feelings every time I touch them is a small price to pay for zapping all and sundry wherever I go. Besides, as long as I remember to ground myself, it isn't so bad. 

Cheers, 

Hattori 

*** 

(Shizuka to Miki)   
December 16 

My dear old friend, 

I apologize for not having gotten back to you sooner. It's been too long since we've seen each other and it seems our reunion will have to wait another month. My husband has decided that we should go on a cruise this next week. It's rather unexpected and I suspect him of being up to something, but well you know my husband. 

If nothing else, a cruise might afford me an opportunity to find out just what my foolish boy is up to. I told you, I think, that he's been behaving a bit oddly lately. In fact, I was really hoping to consult with you about him. You are, after all, considered a guiding light in your field. No, I don't expect a free consultation, Miki. I know what your time is worth. In any case, the matter is a moot point, since I won't be able to meet you as we'd planned. 

I really _am_ rather worried about the boy. It's obvious something troubles him and if there is anything I can do to help, I want to. 

Sincerely, 

Shizuka 

PS. I just had a thought. Would you like to go on a cruise? All expenses paid, of course. 

*** 

(email from Kazuha to Ran)   
December 18 

Dear Ran, 

Well, we got off to a flying start today. What with Heiji and his father arguing throughout packing, I thought I was going to have to throw a fit in the middle of the living room to make them get moving. We did it, though and we're on the cruise ship. I'm typing this email using the computer in our state room! I'm going to be so spoiled when we get back – this thing is so _quick_. It uses a satellite connection too! 

Did I tell you last time that this is a _mystery_ cruise? That's right. We're going to spend the next fourteen days in the middle of a murder mystery game. You should have seen Heiji's face when he found out. He's really looking forward to it, even if it _isn't_ real. Honestly, he's like a child at Christmas when there's a mystery to solve. (Heh, I just realized, it nearly _is_ Christmas, isn't it?) Not even his dad reminding him that these mystery games seldom make sense was enough to daunt him. I bet he solves the case before it gets halfway through. Given, of course, that a real one doesn't turn up – the way they always seem to around him. I think that boy's cursed, and I can't make an omamori powerful enough to keep murders away when he actively seeks the things out. But that's beside the point, isn't it? 

Anyway, you should see our rooms. A single lounge between two bedrooms. Heiji and his dad are staying in the one room, his mom and I in the other. The bedrooms are huge, too. Almost as big as the room we stayed in at Nor'hanger Abbey. Not as nicely decorated though. I suppose there's no way you could keep a cruise-ship room that nice, even on a ship this big, so I'm not complaining. 

Anyway, Heiji wants to use the computer now, so I'll get off and get back with you later. Don't worry, I'll tell him to say hi to Shinichi for you. 

Regards, 

Kazuha. 

*** 

(email from Heiji to Shinichi)   
December 18, 

*grumble* 

It's a good thing Agasa-hakase gave me that security program. Otherwise I wouldn't dare write to you using some strange computer. Stupid thing took a half-hour to load on this piece of junk, though. Fortunately, Kazuha's gone off with mom and dad, or I'd have to worry about her looking over my shoulder while I type. Not to mention my oh so curious lady Mother. She keeps looking at me strangely, Kudo. I know she's suspicious. It just ain't easy hiding my 'condition' from her. 

Is it whining to say I really _want_ to tell her? I don't like having to keep secrets, but what would she do if she found out that I can see dead people? And not just the damned bodies that follow you and me around like – well like a certain headless dog of my acquaintance. He's sitting beside me, by the way, and his head would be sticking out of the window if he had one. I wonder if I could convince him – or my subconscious, as Ai keeps insisting – that it's perfectly all right for him to have a head? 

Oh, by the way, Kudo, guess what kind of cruise this is? A _mystery_ cruise. One of those trips where actors perform a mystery right around you. You even get a crack at solving it yourself. Dad, of course, had to be a wet blanket about it and remind me about how badly written the things usually are, but it'll be fun, I think, to puzzle out something where nobody really dies. I 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"Heiji. Please leave that silly game and come out. Your father and Kazuha are waiting." 

I forced myself not to jerk sharply as I moved my finger from the hotkey that had covered the email screen with a more innocent game of solitaire. Part of Professor Agasa's program, a quick and easy way to conceal what I'd been up to. Good thing I'd kept an ear out for someone opening the door to our suite. Otherwise mom would have been on me far too quick for my comfort. "Hi mom," I sighed. "I thought supper wasn't for another hour." 

"That's true. However, your father desires that you accompany us, rather than bury yourself in a computer for the duration of the trip." Mom floated in, walking with her usual grace, her expression revealing nothing. If I didn't know her so well, I would have thought she was talking to a casual acquaintance, rather than a son that she was worried over – and I knew from the way she was watching me that she was worried. 

_Damnit. It's easier for Kudo. His parents know and understand about his problem. How in the ninth hell can I explain what happened to me without sounding like I've gone stark raving mad?_ I sighed. "Okay, okay, Mom. I'll be there in a moment. " I hit another set of hot keys. Ones that would save my email to Kudo for later as they closed the game. 

"Very good," Mom turned and headed for the door again, standing beside it and waiting for me. "You really should spend more time with the rest of us, child. Especially Kazuha, who has been quite patient with your sulks lately. Besides, I am of the understanding that the drama that we are to observe will be beginning soon." 

I muttered something under my breath about Kazuha and my sulks, but was careful not to say it so loudly as to force Mom to take notice. Instead I went to the door and opened it, knowing that was what she was waiting for. Behind me, Franky jumped down from his post at the window and followed. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
The last dregs of sunlight flowed across the ocean, painting the sky a rosy pink and gleaming upon the waves. I sighed, watching the play of light and shadow. It was so very beautiful. 

"I want to apologize, Kazuha-chan." 

Looking up, I smiled at Uncle Heizo. "Sir?" 

"My fool of a son. He doesn't treat you at all well, does he?" Heiji's father was staring off into the sunset, a grim expression on his face. I wondered if he ever smiled. Not that one could tell under that mustache of his. "His mother spoils him." 

I looked away, not sure exactly how to react. I sometimes wondered if Uncle Heizo knew his son at all. Heiji might be brash, arrogant and cocky, but he wasn't spoiled. "I don't feel mistreated, sir," I told him, pretty much truthfully. 

"I've heard the way he talks to you, child. It's unforgivable for a boy his age to speak so rudely to a young lady." Uncle Heizo shook his head. "I really don't know why you put up with it. Especially lately." 

For a long moment I went silent. There were a lot of things Uncle Heizo didn't understand. For that matter, there were a lot of things _I_ didn't understand. Heiji's current behavior was part of the latter, but the former "Sir, Heiji and I We get along the way we do for a reason. I don't mind how he talks to me." _Besides, I give as good as I get,_ I thought to myself, and wondered if that bothered Uncle Heizo as much or more than the fact that his son treated me more like one of his male buddies than a girl. 

The frown deepened and I wished I had the courage to say other things to Uncle Heizo. To say _why_ he and his son didn't get along. Heiji's parents were old-school all the way and if – at the depths of her personality – Heiji's Mom wasn't as tough and self-assured in her own hidden ways as his father, he probably would have grown up just the same. Heiji hated that his mother needed to hide her strength, hated that his father let her do so. That was, I suspected, one of the biggest reasons we treated each other the way we did. I sighed and looked back along the ship. Heiji might respect me the better for being strong enough to speak my mind to him, but there was no way I could right now. Not to Uncle Heizo. 

Watching the deck I saw that Heiji and his mother were coming our way, relieving me of the need to work out an answer to Uncle Heizo's unspoken questions. 

*** 

HEIJI: 

Something was wrong with Kazuha. I could see that in the way she was standing. "Damn it, has Dad been upsettin' her?" 

"Your father is concerned about the two of you," Mom sighed. "You _do_ treat her somewhat rudely, child." She looked at me and a faint smile crossed her face. For a moment I thought she was going reach out and straighten my hair the way she used to when I was a kid. Then she turned away, "Though I will grant that she returns the favor." 

"I _like_ her the way she is," I grumbled under my breath, side stepping a ghost that was leaning against the railing. He was dripping with water and blood and I felt a certain sympathy for the poor wretch. I'd gone overboard from a ship once, some time ago. There, but for the grace of god - or at least Kazuha's protective talisman – I might have been. _At least I avoided the propellers,_ I thought, avoiding looking at the unpleasant gashes. _What a mess. _

Mom sighed, "Look out for the table, child," she murmured, and I realized that in avoiding the ghost I'd nearly walked into something a lot more solid. "You're so distractible these days." 

Shrugging, I returned to Mom's side. "I thought I saw something jump out of the water," I told her. "A dolphin, maybe?" She gave me a considering look and I added, "Or maybe just a big fish. I don't know." 

My explanation sounded lame, even to me, and I went as silent as Mom. She was, I suspected, giving my excuse as much credence as it deserved. Still, at least she didn't call me on it, even if she did know I was pulling at straws. 

As we approached Kazuha and my father, Mom raised her voice enough to say, "Kazuha-chan, you should put on your sweater. The wind is picking up." 

"Yes, Aunt," Kazuha sighed, pulling on the cardigan she'd slung around her waist. "Hey, Heiji, did you remember to send a 'Hi' to Shinichi?" At my glare of irritation she grinned. "Didn't think so." 

"Idiot," I growled. "I was _not_ sending email to Kudo!" Which, strictly speaking was sort of true. After all, Mom interrupted me before I could get the thing sent. "Besides, even if I am, it's not my job to pass messages." 

A growl reminded me that my Father was none too pleased with the way I treated Kazuha. "Speak more politely to young ladies, boy!" 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I muttered. "Sorry, Kazuha." I noted a significant look pass between my parents and wondered what they were thinking. Sticking my hands in my pockets I cocked my head at the Old Man. "Mom says the show's goin' t'start soon. We goin' in?" 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
The dining hall was much bigger than I'd expected and I couldn't help but stare around delightedly, much to Heiji's obvious irritation. "Will ya stop gawking, Kazuha?" he muttered to me, making sure his parents were far enough ahead of us to not hear him. "Yer acting like a country bumpkin." 

I mock-grimaced at him. "Heiji, you have absolutely no sense of wonder." This was one of our favorite arguments and after the unnerving ease with which he'd apologized to me earlier I wanted to feel like things were back to normal. 

"Nope. None. Not a smidge." He grinned at me and I could see that he was feeling much the same, "I'm a detective. It's our job to ignore a sense of wonder for the facts." 

There was a chuckle behind us and Heiji turned and stepped sideways to permit those behind us through. The lady was an older woman in a dark Chinese dress and her escort, a tall, well dressed man with very carefully coiffured hair. He was handsome, though a bit too self-composed for my tastes. He looked too young for the lady, though, who was surely closer to Aunt Shizuka's age, if not older. He had to be at least twenty-five years her junior. 

"Superintendent Shiratori," Heiji gave the man a little bow, startling me. The man didn't look like a policeman – more like a model for some fancy men's magazine. "It's been a bit." 

"Hattori-kun." Even his voice was more polished, more debonair than I expected from a policeman. Maybe it was my father's influence, but I didn't feel comfortable around someone who was obviously more interested in gaining position in the Force than in doing his job. "Yes, it has, I trust your indisposition that night was short-lived?" 

Heiji had that look again, the one that said he'd swallowed a sour lemon. "Uh, yeah. It was just a cold. And it was late." He coughed hurriedly, as if he wanted to change the subject and turned to me. "Kazuha, this is Superintendent Shiratori, from the Tokyo Branch. Superintendent, Toyama Kazuha." 

"Ohhh. Toyama Your father was with the Force? Chief Inspector Hattori's assistant? I recall working with him some years back." 

I felt stiff and uncomfortable. "Yes, he was. He's retired, though." _So he can't help you get further up in the ranks, sir._

Rather to my surprise, he nodded, smiling. "So I'd heard. He runs a very successful agency too. I'm not at all surprised." 

A small cough reminded us of the lady and the Superintendent's expression turned embarrassed. "I'm sorry, my manners are atrocious. Hattori-kun, Kazuha-kun, this is my Mother" 

"Shiratori Amiko!" Aunt Shizuka called, hurrying over to us. 

*** 

HEIJI:   
Mom took Shiratori-san's hand with a smile that – for her – was broad and happy. I suspected most people would have thought they'd just met. "It's good to see you again! Such a surprise And this is Nozi-chan? I haven't seen him in _years_!" 

I thought Shiratori was going to faint. He certainly didn't look well. Not that I blamed him. Being reminded of what had to be a baby name by one of his Mom's friends couldn't have felt very good. He forced himself back to some semblance of composure, though and bowed. "Er I don't think I" 

"You were only a baby when Shizuka-san was my student, Ninzaburo. Of course you don't remember," Mrs. Shiratori took Mom's hands and smiled at her. "We've not been able to meet for so long. Hei-chan was just about four when I went to Europe. I'm glad to see you again." 

Now it was my turn to feel faint. Hei-chan? _Damn it, I'm 17. I am _not_ a Hei-chan anymore._ I gave Kazuha a glare, warning her that she'd better not even think of calling me that later. Her grin just turned my expression even more sour. Turning to Mom, I gestured towards the table where Dad was looking impatiently at us. "Mom Dad's waiting," I murmured in her ear. 

"Oh dear. My manners Please forgive me. Would you and your son be willing to join us?" 

"Of course we would," Shiratori-san nodded, not even glancing at her son to check his opinion on the matter. From his expression, I suspected he was torn. On one hand, it certainly wouldn't hurt his career to pass a friendly evening with Osaka's Chief Inspector. On the other – the risk that his mother would say or do something embarrassing must have seemed pretty high. I know _I_ wouldn't have wanted to chance it. 

"There's not enough seats, Mom," I pointed out, "Why don't Kazuha, Superintendent Shiratori and I sit at the next table?" 

"That sounds like an excellent idea to me, Mother," Shiratori noted, giving me a wry look. "I hesitate to call it the children's table, but" 

"But there's no reason why we should inflict our conversations about the past on you," Mrs. Shiratori said. "I quite understand. But behave, Ninzaburo. No encouraging them to get into trouble." 

The Superintendent had the grace not to wince too obviously. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
"It's rather embarrassing, actually," Superintendent Shiratori said, smiling at the two of us over the menu. "Mother absolutely insisted on coming on this trip and wouldn't let me say no to coming along. Still, I have to admit to being intrigued by the premise. At least it's a distraction" The last was more muttered than stated outright and I had a feeling he really hadn't meant to say anything. Heiji raised a brow but with more tact than I usually give him credit for, didn't pry, turning to other subjects. 

I watched the Superintendent and Heiji talk with mild amusement. The conversation had begun awkwardly, of course. Shiratori-san wasn't used to dealing with teenagers much, it seemed and I think I must have been making him nervous. _It didn't help that I'd not taken to him at first._ He was beginning to grow on me, though, in an oddly likeable way. As long as I ignored the almost too-suave style I thought I could deal with him easier. _Besides, anyone who takes being called _Nozi-chan_ by a complete stranger without losing his temper has got to have something going for him._

"Mothers can be that way," Heiji agreed, glancing over towards the 'adult' table with a grin. "I" He was about to say more when the sound of an argument interrupted him. 

"Look you stupid little fool, I am _not_ going to discuss the matter further! I'm telling you again, I am taking up your behavior with your superiors as _soon_ as we get back to port!" The speaker was an older man, dressed in an expensive outfit that still managed to look wrong on him. Maybe it was the shade of purple. He had a sour face with white streaked black hair and narrow black eyes. "If you don't leave me alone right now I'll ask the Captain to put you into the _brig_!" 

"Sir" The person the man was speaking to was wearing the pale green skirt and jacket of the ship's crew, though it didn't quite fit her apparently heavy-set frame. There was padding in her suit that made her look larger than she really was. Her hair was dyed a reddish brown and her rounded face wore a deeply worried expression. "Please, it isn't what you think it is I found" 

"Be quiet and go away now!" the old man growled angrily. 

Forced by the combination of the attention she'd drawn on herself and by the old man's insistence, the young woman hurried away. 

"Hmph," the man said once she was gone, speaking to one of his companions, a plump man about his age with perfectly white hair and a cheerfully friendly expression. His outfit was unfortunate, being a crumpled suit in a strange shade of yellow. "These characters. They have absolutely no concept of place, do they?" His voice seemed too loud for the room, and something about the way it carried made me realize this was part of the show. It certainly had everybody's attention. 

"What was it she wanted, Professor Ikura?" another of the people at the table asked. This one was a woman, elegantly dressed in a long red gown with an ivory cigarette holder held in one gloved hand. _Oh, this is definitely the show,_ I realized. _Surely no one really dresses that way?_

"I discovered her in my cabin earlier today," the old man said grimly. "Poking through my briefcase. The little wretch tried to claim she found it in one of the public bathrooms and knew it was mine by the card case inside." 

The fourth person – an elderly woman with a sharply sour face and enough diamonds on her teal outfit to decorate a chandelier – smiled. "You mean you didn't have it put away in the safe in your room the way you'd said you would?" 

The old man looked ready to snap, but his companion put a hand on his arm. "Now, now let's not make a scene, Ikura. Was everything where it was supposed to be?" 

"Of course it was, Kiro!" Ikura answered. "You know I" Again he paused, glancing at the two women suspiciously. "Never mind what I did with it," he continued. "You'll find out the contents in my own good time." 

After another 15 minutes of conversation, filled with vague hints and allusions to some wonderful device that the old man had designed, things quieted down and the scene ended with the group all leaving the dining room in different directions. Deciding the show was over, I turned to Heiji and Shiratori-san, wondering what they would make of the plot so far. Except Heiji was gone and Shiratori-san was staring off towards the exit with a puzzled expression on his face. "What happened to Heiji?" 

"I'm not sure," Shiratori-san murmured, blinking. "He turned pale and ran for the door. Is he subject to sea-sickness?" 

"No," I answered, getting up. "Shiratori-san, if you'll excuse me I think something must be wrong." 

(to be continued) 

* * *

Author's Notes: 

Well, it took over a year to get done, mainly because there are a fair number of other demands on my time; family, hobby, artistic and literary. (Yes, I'll be working more on Amusing Interlude soon. Really.) That and I hit a point in the mystery that needed a lot of ironing out before I could go on with things. 

The main story is pretty well done, so I'll be posting this fairly regularly, once a day or so.

This fic jumps between Heiji and Kazuha a lot. Apologies to those who have problems with that sort of POV shift but that's part of how I write.


	2. Another Fine Mystery

Pursuance: Part 2 – Another Fine Mystery: In which Franky howls and Heiji hunts   
A Detective Conan/Chounouryoku Tantei Heiji Heiji Fanfic (Psychic Detective Heiji)   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements:   
All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. And apologies for not putting this in last time I posted. *sigh*

* * *

HEIJI:   
I walked briskly through the halls of the ship, following Franky as quickly as I dared without actually running. _Damnit, mutt, I wish you'd find a less painful way of getting my attention!_ His howl would have broken my eardrums if it had been a real sound. As it was, my inner thoughts were still ringing. _How something without a head can manage to make so much noise is beyond me._

Franky stopped at a doorway and waited for me. He didn't need to, of course, being able to walk through walls, but either he'd learned to take my human body into account or, as a creation of my mind, he was responding to my needs. I pulled it open and continued down the long passage that led to the recreation rooms. 

My 'ghostly' companion whined at me to hurry and I nodded at him. _I'm going as fast as I can, pup._ I was starting to run now. Franky only got this upset when someone was about to die. I'd learned the hard way not to waste a minute in following him, no matter how inconvenient it might be. Maybe I _couldn't_ have saved that old man from being hit by a car, but waiting to put on my pants had ensured I wasn't there in time. Capturing the hit-and-run driver had been a cold comfort. 

Another of Franky's howls sent me hurtling down the hallway past a young man about my age in a white uniform, one of the crew rather than the serving staff, though I had to wonder at his blonde dyed hair. There was something familiar about him, but I ignored that thought for the moment, rushing past him. I heard him follow, calling for me to wait. 

I skidded to a halt at a doorway as he caught up. "Sir Please, you shouldn't" He put an arm up hurriedly to stop me from stepping in and I felt him jerk as he got a nice little shock courtesy of the Professor's devices. I ignored him, staring into the weight room at an all too familiar scene. 

Within the room was the woman from the show earlier, hanging from one of the pieces of equipment like some bizarre puppet. Some rope went around her neck, then up to the bar and I noted another bit of rope around her waist. It was mostly hidden by her blouse, but a part of it hung loose enough to be seen. Her face was a peculiar shade of purple, and her hands were clutching at the noose. Lying on the floor below her was a piece of cord that looked like it had been used to pull a block of wood free from the weights behind her. I scanned the scene hurriedly, thoughts moving rapidly. "Get out of my way," I growled at the crewman. 

He grabbed me. "No wait" 

Pushing past him, I rushed to the setup. "Sir wait this is part of the" 

"The show, yeah, but something's wrong," I told him as I grabbed the girl around the waist and held her up. She was a dead weight in my arms and I could only hope that the description wasn't accurate. _She was just struggling,_ I thought. _She has to be alive._

The young man hurried towards me, still protesting and I shook my head at him. "The harness is broken, see?" I pointed at the bit of rope sticking out. I'd heard of setups like this, a faked up noose attached around the neck, while the main rope was really wrapped around her waist and shoulders, holding the fake victim's weight. "This rope would be pulled tight if everything was okay," I added, indicating the loop around her waist. 

The young man's jaw dropped. "I don't understand How?" 

"Never mind that. Get me something sharp so I can cut her down. That knot's too tight." She wasn't nearly as pudgy as her costume made her look, but she was no lightweight either. As a thin keening moan issued from the victim's throat, I added, "Then find the ship's doctor. Come _on_, man! MOVE IT!" 

Turning, the crewman nearly ran into Kazuha and Shiratori. "Heiji!" "Hattori-kun!" 

Before they could start demanding explanations I interrupted. "Better yet. Shiratori, ship's doctor, now! Don't let him dawdle, this is a real emergency! You, whatever your name is, help me hold her up. Kazuha, get a knife. FAST!" 

If there's anything I most appreciate about Kazuha it's the fact that she knows when to listen to me. As Shiratori spun around and raced one way she ran the other, towards the kitchens. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
I raced back to the weight room, knife in hand, wrapped in a towel. The cook hadn't been too agreeable about the whole matter, but I'd managed to argue it out of him. Inside the weight room, Heiji and the young crewman were still holding the woman up. _I hope he's right about this. He's going to look no end of a fool if this turns out to be part of the show and he's panicking for nothing._

For what little it was worth, though, I thought he _was_ right. The color on the girl's face had gotten better in the few minutes it'd taken for me to get a knife, and no make-up job could have achieved that effect. "Got one," I told Heiji and he nodded gruffly at me. He didn't have to tell me to start cutting. 

A minute or so later I'd sliced through the cord. Heiji and the crewman gently lowered the victim down as she started to cough. Glancing at Heiji's face, I saw his expression, saw the intense relief he obviously felt at the girl's survival. Then, as he noted me watching him, his usual cocky smile returned. "Well, that was fun," he muttered. "Help me get the noose off." 

I knelt beside the girl and, at Heiji's direction, slid the blade under the rope and cut it free while he held it away from her neck. "What happened?" I asked, once that was done. 

"The illusion went wrong," Heiji answered grimly. "Something must have happened to her harness. This guy," he gestured at the crewman, "is part of" 

"No.. I never I just" 

"No, you idiot. I don't mean you killed her. I mean you're part of the show, right? Or at least you were supposed to be helping out." Heiji started sliding the woman's jacket off while she stirred fitfully. "It was your job run into the dining hall to announce her death by apparent suicide, right?" 

Suddenly I understood the setup, if not why it had gone wrong. "So she's supposed to kill herself rather than be accused of stealing the old man's briefcase, right?" 

"Or one of the others kill her and make it _look_ like suicide," Heiji added. "Did the rest of the cast stay at their seats, Kazuha?" 

I shook my head. "They left around the same time you did." 

"It'd be tight," Heiji mused, "But then this is a fictional plot. Perhaps the writer didn't take time into account as well. How long before you were supposed to run screaming for help?" 

"Another fifteen minutes," the young man admitted. "Akemi wanted time to get into character." 

I looked at him, probably a bit strangely, and wondered exactly how one got in character to play a corpse? He flushed, adding, "She has a tendency to break into giggles. So she has to play dead for a bit before she's ready to perform in front of an audience." 

"That would – just about – cover the time problem," Heiji said as he slid the ropes around Akemi-san's shoulders free, just as Superintendent Shiratori stepped in and gestured at the situation for an skinny older man in the ship's uniform, balding, with sparse reddish brown hair shaved close to his skull. He moved stiffly and his left hand was replaced by a prosthesis. I forced my eyes not to stare at the device. It was plastic and metal, with a pair of metal 'fingers' that must have allowed him to pick things up. 

"As you see," Shiratori-san said quietly, "I think you will find there is reason to call you, after all." 

The ship's doctor hurried forward while Heiji sat back, picking up the harness and carrying it over to clear area. I followed him and Shiratori-san joined us. "You may have saved that young lady's life," Shiratori-san said quietly. "Congratulations." 

"Never mind that. Look at this." Heiji pointed at the harness, obviously expecting me to see something. 

I shook my head. I could barely figure out how it was supposed to work, much less what had gone wrong and I said as much, adding, "About the only thing I can see is that it's a 32 strand braid." I'd taken a kumihino class recently and the pattern was one I recognized as one of the most common, making the braid look like twisted strands of rope instead of intertwined. 

Heiji sighed at my stupidity and continued, "This large loop goes around the waist and these 2 smaller loops around the shoulders. The rope connected to the weights is actually part of the loop going around the waist, and it's knotted around the rope connecting the two shoulder straps." 

I was about object that it wasn't anything of the sort when the Superintendent nodded. "Or rather, it was supposed to be, right?" He reached into his pocket, pulling out a digital camera. "I believe it might be a good idea to take photos of the evidence, then. Just in case this _is_ something more than an accident." 

Heiji smiled, that tight angry smile he gets when he thinks someone's trying to get away with murder. "After that, a third loop, the so-called noose, goes around the neck." He pointed to the loop in question, adjusting its position so that the place I'd cut met and Shiratori-san snapped a few shots. "It's connected to the main rope, but it wouldn't be pulled on if everything was okay. But as you'd noted, Superintendent, what ought to have been a knot is actually simply a loop and the victim's entire weight was being put on the main rope. Now, she's not incredibly heavy, but this segment has been frayed somehow and within a few minutes of her getting into the set up it must have snapped, leaving only the loop around the neck to keep her from falling." 

The explanation puzzled me a bit and I leaned forward to look at where the noose was attached to the main rope. I would have thought Akemi's weight would have been enough to pull the noose off of the rope. "Oh, I see," I said, touching the slip knot where the noose was connected. Below it on the main rope was another knot that would keep the noose from sliding off. More, there was a second slip knot that helped form the loop that had gone around Akemi's neck. If nothing pulled on it, that knot would have stayed where it was, but when the main rope had broken, the loop had been pulled tight. "What a horrible thing. Do you think it was an accident?" 

"Accident or murder, it isn't your business." The voice was Uncle Heizo's and he was glowering at Heiji from the doorway with a sour expression. "I should have known I'd find you in the thick of things, boy." 

*** 

HEIJI:   
I looked up. "Dad," I said coolly. This was one of our biggest disagreements. Dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps, and that meant not making a scene by interfering in what he considered exclusive police business. Behind him, Mom was watching us with that expression she gets when she's trying _not_ to say something, her old friend beside her with an odd look on her face. I ignored that in favor of asking, "Would you prefer I'd left her hanging?" 

A sour look crossed Dad's face and he seemed about to snap at me. Before he could, Shiratori spoke up. "Sir, he _did_ save the girl's life." 

"It isn't that that I object to, young man," Dad grumbled, stepping into the room. "He's interfering with evidence. Right here and now." He pointed at the rope. "What if he's destroyed something important, just by his fiddling?" 

"Nylon rope doesn't hold useable fingerprints, Dad, and you know it. We didn't cut any of the knots and all I did was show the Superintendent how the setup was supposed to work and how it failed." I brushed my knees off as I stood up. "Are you going to take the case and toss me out on my ear? You're senior here, after all." 

Dad shot me an odd look, but shook his head. "I have every confidence that Superintendent Shiratori can handle matters." He bowed in Shiratori's direction and the Tokyo officer's expression was torn between gratification and worry. "Shiratori-kun, I would suggest you send my fool of a son out at the earliest opportunity. He'll only be underfoot every step of the way, otherwise." 

"Now dear, remember that this is a vacation. Why don't we leave our boy and Kazuha to their fun and find something to do elsewhere," Mom scolded softly. I had a feeling Dad was in for another of her patented lectures once she got rid of Shiratori's mother. Family rules were that they never argued in public, nor in front of me, but if she really thought I didn't know what was going on, she was stupider than I thought she could possibly be. Still, for Mom, appearances were everything. 

Dad's lips compressed and I might have felt sorry for him, if he didn't add, "And if you _do_ let him in on this case – such as it is – make sure he doesn't fall overboard or something." 

As Dad was led away by my Mom's hand tight around his wrist, I glared after him. _Gee, thanks, Dad. Just _had_ to get that dig in. _One_ time I fall overboard and he has never let me live it down._ I hated being reminded of the incident. There's only one moment in my life more terrifying than the fear of those great propellers chopping me to pieces, and the realization that if no one showed up they might as well have. No, that was the moment when I was certain Kazuha was going to die because of _my_ stupidity. I rubbed surreptitiously at the tiny scar on my hand. 

Shiratori glanced at me, forcing me to push aside those thoughts. "Er" 

"He won't be mad if you let me in on it. Dad just likes to be difficult," I told the Superintendent. "But I'll understand if you'd rather not." 

Shaking his head, Shiratori answered, "No. I remember you did an exemplary job with that one case in Tokyo. Besides, at the moment it isn't clear if this is murder or an accident." Glancing at where the doctor was checking the victim's breathing, he added, "Rather, _attempted_ murder or accident." 

"It's difficult to be sure," I agreed. Beside me, Franky panted happily – his pleasure at our saving the girl so palpable I would have expected everyone in the room to feel it. "The rope could simply have frayed. Though a fray would surely be obvious." My instincts were screaming murder, but there wasn't nearly enough evidence. I started to look around, examining the weights, while the Superintendent began questioning the crewman and the doctor had some men carry the victim to the medical bay. 

I listened to the stammering explanation of what was supposed to happen while I knelt beside the weight machine. The young man's part wasn't a large one. His only duty was to play the part of a crewman and announce the 'death'. The rest of the plot was secret, even from him. _I wonder if there's anything in her room. It'd help to know what's supposed to be part of the story. _

Kazuha squatted beside me, looking a bit bored. "You wanna go with mom and dad?" I asked her and she shook her head. "Okay, whatever. Suit yourself." 

Picking up the piece of wood that had supposedly propped the weights for the so-called suicide attempt, I shook my head. It was going to be interesting, working out which clues belonged to the real case and which to the imaginary. Certainly if this whole thing had been real I would have been certain it was an attempted murder. _She weighs about 150 lbs. The weights are about 400 lbs. _If she'd really tried to commit suicide by this method the speed with which the weights fell would have snapped her neck, not left her slowly strangling.

"Have you found anything?" Kazuha asked. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
Heiji blinked at me, eyebrows raised and expression a bit startled. I repeated the question, adding, "Well, Mr. Great Detective of the West? Why don't you wow me with your deductions?" I glanced over at Superintendent Shiratori, who was still busily questioning the crewman. It was certain _he_ wasn't going to be paying Heiji much mind for a bit. I might have liked the Superintendent better now, despite first impressions, but I had my doubts about his willingness to listen to a seventeen year old boy. _And Heiji likes to have someone to play off of. We're not in Osaka, where the police know him – and Shinichi Junior's not around to bounce ideas off of._

After a moment, Heiji pointed to the tip of the wood in his hand. "This wasn't used the way it apparently had been. The amount of weight required to hang a woman Akemi's size would be enough to press onto the ends. There's no mark of such pressure." 

I squatted beside him. "Well, wouldn't it be stupid of her to use that kind of trick anyway? I mean, for the sake of the show she had to make it _look_ good, but she certainly didn't have to go through the full set of motions." 

Heiji's brows pulled together in a frown. "I didn't say she had to, you fool," he told me in an aggravated tone. "If you don't want to know what I'm doing, don't ask!" 

_Way to go, Kazuha. He's already on edge over his father's comments._ There were times when I sort of wished taping my mouth shut was a reasonable option. "I'm sorry," I said, penitently. "I didn't mean it that way." 

Now Heiji really looked startled and a bit non-plussed, as if he wasn't sure he was pleased I'd capitulated. Still, he continued, "The point is, if she was really committing suicide this method wouldn't require a stool or anything to stand on. On the other hand, since she couldn't have used this method for setting up the trick, she'd have to have one. So where is it?" 

I looked around the room. There were stools, all right, but none of them were anywhere near and all were standing upright. "Maybe whomever was assisting her in setting up moved it back once she was up?" 

"Which begs the question, who was assisting her?" Heiji glanced over at Shiratori-san, who nodded, overhearing our conversation. "This guy?" Heiji pointed at the crewman the Superintendent was questioning. 

Again Shiratori-san nodded. "Mr. Toshini is Miss Akemi's assistant," he confirmed, "And her younger brother." 

"I I swear everything was right" the young man interrupted, protesting, and I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. 

Heiji picked up the rope, examining it more closely. "Did you check the harness?" he asked quietly, eyeing Mr. Toshini. 

Shaking his head, Mr. Toshini gasped, "No. Akemi wouldn't let _anyone_ handle her ropes but herself. They were stored in her room in the ship's quarters and she was the only one with a key." 

The ship's doctor coughed. "Er Well, that's not entirely true, young man. Your sister's room _could_ have been gotten into with the master key." He finished putting his instruments away and stood up, brushing his knees off with his good hand. "Though the Captain usually keeps those locked up in his quarters. It's far more likely the harness just failed." He sounded like a man trying to convince himself, as much as everyone else. 

"Really?" Heiji murmured, looking closely at where the rope had broken. He held it out to the Superintendent. "Ya think?" 

I looked at the rope. "I don't see anything" I started to say, then a faint acrid odor – like melted plastic – reached my nostrils. I looked closer. The outside of the rope was frayed as you'd expect if the rope had just broken, but inside a number of the nylon strands looked almost "Melted." 

*** 

HEIJI:   
I looked around Dr. Makashino's office curiously, while its owner finished tucking Miss Toshini in. "It's going to be a bit before she's ready to talk," Dr. Makashino said finally. "I'm sorry, Superintendent, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow." 

"No, I quite understand. However" Shiratori glanced worriedly at the bed where the girl lay, a towel folded on her forehead. The marks around her throat were beginning to fade, but they still looked raw and angry. "If someone tried to kill her then they may try again. Is there someone who could stay with her?" 

"I could," Kazuha piped up and I bit back a protest. I didn't know why, but I didn't like the idea. _Don't be silly,_ I told myself. _Kazuha's a big girl. She can take care of herself._ Turning away, I glanced at the doctor's desk, noting a dismantled old radio sitting on it, with various repair tools, as well as a handsome portrait of a young woman done in sepia tone on a wood panel. 

"My hobby, if you have to know," Dr. Makashino said, following my gaze. He gave me a sour smile. "It can get a bit boring in here, so I fiddle with fixing electronics." He glanced sourly at his prosthetic hand. "It takes a bit of doing, but I like to challenge myself. Like that coffee maker over there," he gestured to the corner of the room, where an old Mr. Coffee unit sat, the beaker half full. 

I nodded, not mentioning that it hadn't been just the radio I'd noticed, but the equipment he'd been using for the repair, namely the soldering iron. I fingered the handle, feeling the heat. _But that's meaningless,_ I thought. _He could have been using it recently for its intended purpose._ I put the information into its mental slot and asked, "Nice portrait. Who's the young lady?" 

"My late wife," the Doctor answered, no smile in his eyes and in a tone that forbade sympathy. "The Captain's gift to me on our fifth anniversary. His own work." 

"It's neat," Kazuha said, looking over my shoulder. "I've never seen anything like it before." 

"A Western craft. Wood-burning, I believe it's called. He's very good, isn't he?" There was an odd, cold, note in his tone. The phone rang then and he picked it up. "Yes?" After a second he glared and slammed the thing down. 

"Problem?" 

"It's been acting up. All the official phones have been. Answer and the only thing you hear is something like an engine running. Sometimes a voice." The Doctor shrugged it away. "Never mind. If you don't need me for anything else, I'm going to bed. It's been a long night." 

I nodded and took Kazuha by the elbow, "Come over here," I told her. "Gotta talk to you." 

Kazuha blinked at me. "What is it?" she asked as she followed me to a quiet corner while Makashino gathered some things together. 

"I'm not too sure about your staying with the girl. If you insist on it, though, I want you to be careful." A strange look crossed Kazuha's face and I continued. "If this _is_ a murder then whomever wanted _her_ dead may not hesitate to stop with her." I looked into Kazuha's eyes, willing her to understand what I was saying. I was torn. I couldn't let her be hurt, but at the same time I couldn't deny her the right to take her own risks. "You don't know who to trust. You'll be alone" 

"Actually," the Superintendent said quietly, as he put the phone down that he'd used to call someone, "My mother has offered to stay with the young lady as well. She'll be here in a few minutes." 

I must have looked startled, because Shiratori continued, "Mother may not look it, but she's a former kendo champion. That's how she knew your mother, in fact." 

"" was all I could say. Mom had told me the name of her kendo teacher, but I hadn't linked Amano Miki with Shiratori Amiko. 

Kazuha hesitated. "It's nice of her, but I hate to put her to such bother. I'm sure I can take care of things." 

"Idiot," I growled at her. "Take help when it's offered, you silly girl." 

"Like _you_ do?" Kazuha began to launch into one of her favorite attacks – namely my tendency to get myself into trouble – but was interrupted by the door slamming open and a man in a gold braid infested uniform stomping in. A thick mustache covered most of his upper lip, drooping down over the lower and he had the look of a man careful with his appearance, though I did note a small black speck – like some ash or the like – on his pants leg as he stalked in and glared around at us. _Captain Yamamori, and not happy. Not happy at all._

"Just what in the nine hells is going _on_ here?" 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
While I shook Heiji's hand off my arm, Dr. Makashino took the Captain aside and spoke quietly and urgently to him. "This gentleman is Superintendent Shiratori," he said, glancing in Shiratori-san's direction. "Akemi-san was injured in an accident Captain. The young man here rescued her. The girl is his young lady." 

I think both Heiji and I got identical looks of consternation on our faces. We certainly started stammering protests at the same time. Fortunately for our dignity, however, the Captain was too busy getting upset about the accident to pay us any attention. 

"What do you _mean_ an accident? I thought you told me the set up was fool-proof?" The Captain's anger was turning his face an intriguing shade of red. "Damn it, I told you, I want no more trouble aboard this ship!" 

"Sir? What do you mean, _more_ trouble?" Shiratori-san asked quietly, stepping up to the others. 

The Captain glared at him, then noted the wallet the Superintendent was holding out with his identification. "Oh. Police," he said in a grudging tone. "You people caused me enough headaches last time." He shoved some things out of the way on the doctor's desk and perched on it as he continued, "About 13 years ago we lost a crewman overboard. One of the passengers was a policeman who spent the rest of the voyage trying to find evidence that the man was murdered." 

Heiji had an odd look on his face and he swallowed, hard. "Overboard?" he repeated. I wondered if he was remembering the time he'd been the one in that position. 

A sharp look followed Heiji's question. "You are?" 

"Hattori Heiji," Heiji answered, straightening in that way he gets when he's in a temper. "Sir." 

The Captain frowned. "Hattori Heiji. You're that 'Great Detective of the West', right?" 

"Yes, sir!" Heiji answered and I groaned inwardly. Captain Yamamori was definitely off on the wrong foot with him. 

The Captain's next words ensured that Heiji wasn't going to like him. "Well, Hattori-_chan_. This is an adult matter. You may get to run around poking your nose where it doesn't belong elsewhere, but you have no position of authority aboard this ship" 

The Superintendent coughed. "Actually, I asked Hattori-kun to assist me," he said quietly. "And his father, Chief Inspector Hattori, has agreed that I may follow my judgment on the matter." 

I had to admire the way Shiratori-san weaseled his way around the fact that Uncle Heizo wasn't keen on his son's involvement with murder cases. Heiji had a peculiarly innocent look on his face as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and cocked his head at the Captain with an expectant look. 

With a sigh, the Captain threw up his hands. "Very well. I can see I'm not going to be in control here." He gave me a quick sharp look. "What about the girl? Is _she_ going to help solve this so-called _case_ as well?" 

Shiratori-san shook his head. "The young lady and my Mother have offered to sit with Akemi-san until she's recovered. Just in case she has information. And, of course, you'll be posting a guard at the door and the Doctor will be here." 

Captain Yamamori frowned. "I will, eh? I suppose it's reasonable enough." He headed for the door. "Just keep things quiet. I won't have my passengers disturbed without good cause." 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"The first thing I'd like to do is to look at Akemi-san's room," I noted to the Superintendent. "If that's all right with you?" I was deliberately being on my best behavior. Shiratori had worked with me all of once and I didn't have the reputation with him that I did with my father's men. _Nor the fact that I _am_ my father's son._ I'd be fooling myself if I believed that my first few cases would have been possible if I wasn't the Chief Inspector's bright-eyed boy. 

"That was what I'd intended to do anyway. I've asked Toshini-san to meet us there." Shiratori headed down a passage that was quite a bit narrower and less fancy than those I'd seen before. After a bit, we came to a series of plain metal doors where the young actor was standing and waiting for us. "Ahhh. Here we are." 

"I got the key from Akemi's pocket," Toshini told us. "I waited for you before unlocking the door, though. Just in case." 

Shiratori nodded, "Good," he agreed and allowed me to examine the lock. "It doesn't look forced to me." 

"No obvious sign of having been picked, either," I answered. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't. And this kind of lock is easy to force open if you have the know-how." 

Toshini looked at the two of us with a confused and worried look. "But who would want to hurt my sister? To _kill_ her? We're just actors." 

Shrugging, I stepped aside to let Toshini open the lock, then waited for Shiratori to precede me. As the Superintendent stepped in, looking around the room with a faint frown, I followed suit. The room was small, too small for the three of us. Toshini waited outside, watching from the doorway with an expression that I was beginning to think was perpetually worried and unhappy. It was also still strangely familiar and I tried to think where I'd seen him before. I usually notice faces, and I'd swear he wasn't up in the dining room or one of the pursers I'd seen going about their business during the few hours that we'd been on board. 

_Don't worry at it, Hattori. It'll come when it's ready._ I turned and looked at Franky, who was sitting happily on the bed. _Wish you could point at the clues, annoyance,_ I thought at it, but he just panted with an insufferably smug air. I suppose he had a right to be smug – he'd helped save a life after all – but it would have been nice if he were capable of being more helpful in the rest of the case. That didn't seem to be his area of expertise, however. _My own personal death-detector. _

"Not much here," Shiratori noted, looking over the make-up carefully stored in a case beside the basin sitting on a small dresser – the only piece of furniture aside from the bed. "Where's her suitcase?" 

"Beneath the bed, sir," Toshini pointed and I knelt, lifting the blanket off the cot. A largish black suitcase lay there, partially ajar and I pulled out a handkerchief so I could nudge it out from under without adding to the evidence with my own fingerprints. 

Shiratori knelt across from me. "You know," he murmured, "Unless I find proof that this was a murder attempt, I'm not going to be able to call for an investigation team." 

"Meaning that the evidence may get completely wiped out before it can even be taken." I nodded. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't take care with what we have." 

"True. It also means that if we find something important we'll need to store it somewhere safe until the team can get to it. And take photos, obviously." He snapped a shot of the suitcase, then nodded for me to open it. 

Inside the case was a notebook and a photo album. I picked up the latter, using the handkerchief to open it and glance through the pictures. Most were new, shots of Akemi-san and her brother in various small dramas. Kitimaru and Hosakawa Garacia from a stage version of Makai Tensho The twins from White Devil Woman A scientist in a music video I flicked through the pictures, scanning them for any obvious clues, then paused at a black and white family portrait; An older man who I recognized as the 'professor' from the drama, but dressed much more casually; A middle-aged woman with a marked resemblance to Akemi-san; A young man who looked like Toshini, wearing a similar white uniform; A girl, maybe six or seven years old, plump and pretty, holding a squirming toddler in her lap. Parents and their three children, perhaps. 

"The older man in your group is your father?" I asked Toshini. 

"Grandfather," Toshini said. "Oh God. I should go tell them what happened." 

"Not yet," Shiratori stopped him. "I'd like to talk to the whole group without their knowing what happened. Just wait until we're done in here, then we'll get the others." 

I frowned at the photo, feeling a slow chill rising. "Who are these people?" I asked, quietly, pointing. 

"Grandmother," Toshini indicated the older woman. "She died last year after a long illness. That's our father our Mother left us when I was born and that's Akemi and I." 

I continued gazing at the picture, especially at the man Toshini had identified as his father. I _knew_ that face and not just because he resembled his son. The main difference in their features was a ten year age difference and hair color – Toshini's father didn't dye his hair after all – and it was that last which helped me realize why Toshini looked so familiar. 

His father was the ghost I'd seen on deck. 

To Be Continued...

Author's Comments:

Kumihino: The braid I mention is a real one, though I've yet to learn how to do it.

The Toshini's previous parts can be found in "Samurai Reincarnation" and "Bride with White Hair".


	3. History, Repeated

Pursuance: Part 3 - History, Repeated - In which Heiji learns that the past has much to do with the present.  
A Detective Conan/Chounouryoku Tantei Heiji Heiji Fanfic (Psychic Detective Heiji)  
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements:   
All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read.

* * *

KAZUHA:   
I sat down beside Miss Akemi's bed and watched Mrs. Shiratori knit. I had no idea what it was she was trying to make. Something white and fluffy, with no discernable shape to it. She glanced up at me and smiled. "Heiji seems a very intense young man, Kazuha-chan," she said. 

"Yeah," I agreed. "He's having the time of his life, though. The drama was a fun idea, but if he has a choice between a real mystery and a play one, he'll take the real one everytime." I shook my head, smiling wryly. 

"Ninzaburo-kun can be that way, too. Though I fear his imagination tends to run along some rather bizarre lines, sometimes." Mrs. Shiratori paused, examined her knitting a moment, then smiled. "My fault. I used to tell him some very fantastic stories when he was a child. I'm afraid it's made him a bit – over-excitable – when he's solving cases." 

I must have shown my disbelief over that idea and Mrs. Shiratori shook her head. "He had to learn to think methodically to get anywhere in the Force," she added. "His step-father's influence. He's very successful, of course, but I sometimes think he would be happier if he hadn't worked quite so hard at being a good policeman and trusted his instincts more. The way your boy does." 

"My boy" I stammered. "He's not I mean, we're not" 

Mrs. Shiratori eyed me. "Don't try to hide it, child," she said gently. "It's obvious that the two of you care very much for each other." She paused, frowning a bit. "Enough that you trust each other to take care of yourselves. He nearly told you to go back to your rooms, didn't he? That's his father in him." 

I nodded. "He knows better, though. I wouldn't listen to him if he tried to protect me." I smiled a bit, recollecting those times that I'd gotten in trouble and he'd been there to save and help me. "Not that I mind it when he does," I admitted, a bit abashedly. I didn't know what it was, but something about Mrs. Shiratori invited confidences. 

"That's not surprising," Mrs. Shiratori murmured. "Is it just me, or is he troubled by something?" 

I hesitated. Confidences aside, what was going on with Heiji was probably his business. Before I could say as much, Mrs. Shiratori smiled gently and returned to her knitting. "No, it's _not_ my business. I'm just something of a – student – of human nature." 

"He doesn't talk about it to anyone," I said finally. "I think something's wrong, but as long as he keeps his mouth shut I can't do anything about it." 

Mrs. Shiratori nodded. "And you want to," she agreed. "He is very like his father in that as well. Shizuka had to learn ways to get information from Hattori-san despite his preference for staying closed-mouthed. I'm sure that you know ways to get information from Heiji without his realizing it, as well. You're an intelligent young woman, Kazuha-chan. I'm sure you'll work out what's bothering him." 

Before I could say anything more, Akemi-san started coughing and I moved to her side. "Akemi? Are you all right?" 

"Wh what happened?" Akemi's voice was hoarse and raw. 

"Perhaps Akemi-san would do better to write down what she wants to say?" Mrs. Shiratori murmured, setting her knitting down and getting a note pad and pen. 

Akemi took it with a look of thanks and I wished I'd thought of that myself. Setting that thought aside, I sat down beside her and explained how she'd come to be in the sick bay, while the doctor, called in from his office, checked her out. 

"I should have taken more time to check my equipment," Akemi wrote. "Captain Yamamori wanted to talk to me after the first scene. I didn't have time." 

Nodding, I continued, "It may have been a murder attempt, Akemi-san. Do you think anyone on board would want you dead?" 

She blinked at me and for the briefest moments I thought I saw satisfaction in her eyes. "Dead? No. No reason," she gave me a quick smile. "I'm sure it really was an accident. Who thinks it wasn't?" 

"Superintendent Shiratori," I explained. "And my friend, Heiji." 

"Who?" 

Mrs. Shiratori answered, "Superintendent Shiratori is with the Tokyo police – and I understand that Hattori Heiji is known as the 'Great Detective of the West', Akemi-san. I think that – if this _is_ an attempted murder – you may be confident that they will find the culprit and see to his arrest." 

A strange, surprised, look crossed Akemi-san's face, becoming a look of relief. Then a big, bright, smile. "I am _absolutely_ certain of it," she wrote. "Definitely." 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"The uniform your father was wearing," I asked, looking at Toshini curiously. "Was he an officer?" 

"He worked for a cruise line. This one, in fact." Toshini said, with a bewildered look. "Why do you ask?" 

"Curiosity. Facts can be useful," I told him. "Where is he now?" 

Toshini looked pained. "He he died thirteen years ago. They said he fell overboard." A quick shudder went through him and I fought to keep my _own_ reaction to myself. I was right about the ghost, then. "Grandfather never gave me the details, but they never found his body." he continued, expression unhappy. "I don't know why. I think – maybe – he's afraid father killed himself out of depression about Mother. She left us just before he went on that voyage." 

Shiratori raised a brow at me. "You surely don't think that has anything to do with this, do you?" 

I shrugged. "Like I said, facts can be useful." I glanced at the notebook that Shiratori had been looking through. "Anything in there?" 

"Just the basic plot planned for the drama. Which I suppose is useful in that it will tell us what was intended to happen in the story." He handed it to me. "Nothing very elaborate. Akemi-san was supposed to have been murdered and the investigator was to realize it based on the fact that her neck wasn't broken. Just as you noted earlier." 

I was a bit surprised that Shiratori'd been paying attention, but I nodded acknowledgement of the deduction. "Who's to be the investigator?" 

"Akemi-san. With a new outfit and make-up job, obviously," Shiratori grinned a bit. "I take it the troupe is a bit short handed?" 

"Well, I could have played Detective Yamato's part," Toshini said, a bit disgruntled. "I thought I was going to, but Akemi insisted that she had something better for me to be doing. Not that she told me. She can be so irritating, sometimes." 

Standing up, I smiled wryly. "Yeah, but wouldn't you prefer to be irritated than in mourning?" 

Toshini flushed and stammered, "Yes Of course I'm sorry. I didn't mean to suggest" 

"Don't sweat it." I glanced at Shiratori as I stepped out of the room and back into the hallway. "Should we go talk to the others?" 

Shiratori nodded. "Toshini-san, if you would gather your fellow actors somewhere perhaps the lounge I'd like to discuss their whereabouts in the last hour." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
"You're sure she's asleep?" 

"She hasn't moved for twenty minutes. I don't think we need to worry about her." 

"Then perhaps we can risk discussing Heiji?" 

_There's something about having a familiar name being spoken nearby that just pulls your attention in,_ I thought as I lay on the bed nearest the entrance to the sick bay. Mrs. Shiratori was sitting at the other end of the room, still knitting, and Aunt Shizuka was sitting beside her. The two of them were talking quietly and I wouldn't have eavesdropped for the world except for one thing – it had to do with Heiji. 

"What do you think of him?" Aunt Shizuka asked. 

"I've had little contact in the last few hours," Mrs. Shiratori said softly. "Yet my initial assessment is that you're right. Something is definitely going on with the poor boy. Something in my area of expertise." 

I forced myself not to tense. _Mrs. Shiratori's area of expertise? What is she?_ There was one thing I could think of, but I found it hard to believe that Aunt Shizuka would have her son evaluated by a mental health specialist. Though maybe, if that specialist were an old friend, she would. 

"What should I do?" 

"There isn't much to be done at this point. He appears to be coping well with it." Mrs. Shiratori made a soft sound, rather like a snort. "There is more to it than I am used to, as well. I've never experienced something quite like this before. Has he always been so readily involved with murders?" 

Now it was Aunt Shizuka who snorted. "For at least two years now. No, that's not true. It really started when he was thirteen. No murders then, but he's always had a way of getting involved in odd little cases, and he's always been nosy. His first real _murder_ case was when he was fifteen. I have to admit, though, the frequency has increased in the last half year. Is this common?" 

"In some, yes. Something about adolescence seems to bring it out. He's actually a bit old for it." With a sigh, Mrs. Shiratori continued, "I really should do a more intense evaluation before confirming anything – but I didn't want you to worry too much." 

"No, I understand. I'll wait. It's good to know you agree with my assessment so far, though." A rustle of fabric followed Aunt Shizuka's words, the sound of her kimono rubbing against itself. Then she began moving and I closed my eyes, forcing myself not to react as she went out the door. "Thank you, Amiko-sensei. I'll wait until you've had time to consider the problem. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help." 

As the door closed behind Aunt Shizuka, Mrs. Shiratori rose to her feet and walked to my bedside. "Young lady, eavesdropping is usually considered rude. Is there anything you'd like to ask me, now that Heiji-kun's mother is gone?" 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"I'm absolutely certain we have no enemies." Toshini Ikura shook his head as he answered Shiratori's questions. "Who could we offend? We're just a small troupe. No one has any ties to anyone important. No one is heir to any large inheritance." He shook his head. "Yet What you tell me is worrisome. I find it hard to believe what happened was accidental." 

"Is it at all possible that Akemi-san was trying to kill herself?" Shiratori asked musingly. "Perhaps she deliberately set up the harness to fail so that no one would realize?" 

"Akemi would _never_ do that!" Kiro protested. "She loves life! She has no reason to kill herself." 

"That you know of," Shiratori pointed out. "I'm not saying she did, though. I'm trying to eliminate the possibilities." 

I glanced at the two women, both of whom were simply looking worried. I couldn't be certain, of course, but I didn't think a lover's triangle had anything to do with the situation. The only man young enough to be a possible love interest for Akemi was her brother. "What of you?" I asked. "Has Akemi mentioned anything that might help?" 

The woman in red – Todashi Mariko – shook her head but Mrs. Kitano frowned. "She's been awfully secretive this time around. This whole trip was her idea. We usually go over the plot from beginning to end but" 

"That's true," Toshini-san murmured, frowning. "She's been a bit focused this time. She said she had something special planned this time around. She hasn't even told us which of us is to be the murderer." 

I glanced at Shiratori, who was frowning consideringly. "Maybe she" The Superintendent stopped, shook his head. "No, that's just silly." 

"What is?" 

"I was just wondering if she was trying to make a point. Maybe warning someone or even blackmail?" Shiratori shook his head. "As I said, it's silly. Why not just contact whomever it might be privately and talk to them?" 

"Not quite silly," I disagreed. "A bit over the top – as you say, it would be safer to keep blackmail private. Yet" I thought about it. Something about the possibility echoed intriguingly with the way I was thinking. "It could have been an attempt to warn someone, or get someone's attention. We should probably talk to her." 

Shiratori nodded slowly. "Yes. Tomorrow, when she's feeling better." 

"Given no one tries to kill her again," I muttered. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
I finished drying my hair and began dressing, moving as quietly as possible to avoid waking Aunt Shizuka. Mrs. Shiratori had sent me to my room to clean up and I was due to take over for her in fifteen minutes so she could do the same. It was early in the morning, though, and I didn't want to bother my roommate. 

My mind was still working its way around what Mrs. Shiratori had and had not told me. Aunt Shizuka had brought her in to help Heiji with whatever had been troubling him. She hadn't told me exactly how she was supposed to help, but she _had_ said that it was her job to assist people in dealing with less tangible problems. 

_And why don't I think she's a regular psychologist?_ I wondered. Maybe because she didn't act like the few therapists and councilors I'd known. She didn't ask searching questions about how one felt or poke around in one's family life. Nor could I think of how she could have confirmed Aunt Shizuka's suspicions – whatever _they_ were – in the few short minutes of contact she'd had with Heiji. 

I would have continued thinking about the question, but as I stepped out into the parlor I realized that someone was sitting at the computer, typing quietly on the keyboard. _Heiji?_ He was bent over the computer screen, his face limned by the faint light from the monitor. He'd turned the brightness down and I realized he was trying to avoid notice. I tried moving towards the doorway, intending to slip past without disturbing him, but he muttered, "Don't creep, Kazuha." 

"I didn't want to bother you," I answered, moving closer and speaking as quietly as possible. 

"It's not like I didn't hear you in the shower already," he answered. "Mrs. Shiratori's waiting for you. Better not hang around too long." 

I glared at him. "Belabor the obvious, why don't you?" 

Heiji shrugged, leaning closer to the screen. "Hold on. Gotta read this." 

"What _are_ you up to?" 

"Getting some facts about an old case." I followed Heiji's gaze and realized he was using his father's passwords to get access to the police files over the internet. He glanced at me wryly and put a finger to his lips. "A crewman named Toshini Yuji went overboard from this ship thirteen years ago. His body was never found, but there were signs of damage to the propellers. Pieces of cloth from a crew uniform" I shuddered at the thought but Heiji ignored that to continue. "Signs of an impact. Even if nothing was found, it's fairly certain he's dead. Now his daughter nearly gets killed in a play that mimics incidents that surrounded her father's death. Coincidence?" 

I knelt beside him and looked at the screen, reading the text in the window. Toshini had been accused of stealing a passenger's briefcase and was facing an investigation by his superiors. There was a suggestion that he'd been so afraid of losing his job that he might have thrown himself overboard. "Still, it was determined to be an accident," I said. "Maybe she's just using the play as a catharsis? To help her deal with his death?" 

"Maybe," Heiji answered, doubtfully. "But catharsis doesn't usually involve deliberately trying to kill oneself. I can't believe that rope was damaged accidentally, which seems to suggest that someone doesn't like what she was doing." 

I glanced at Heiji, glad to see the intent and thoughtful look on his face. He always enjoyed these things so much and I'd been worried that whatever else was disturbing him was taking the joy out of his mysteries. _Sure, Kazuha, not a chance,_ I thought to myself. Then I remembered something I'd meant to tell him when I saw him next. "Heiji? Akemi-san woke up a bit after you and Superintendent Shiratori left." 

"Did she say anything?" 

"Not really. She acted really puzzled that someone would want to kill her. Except" Heiji turned to look at me and raised a brow, waiting for me to continue. "Except she seemed pleased. Like things were going the way she wanted them to." 

"I see," Heiji murmured. "Maybe Shiratori was thinking in the right general direction, then." He shook his head. "Not enough facts yet Hello, that's weird." He pointed at the screen, at a section that he'd just scrolled down to. 

Reading it, I frowned at a haiku that had been found in the dead crewman's diary. "Bilge?" I read aloud. "'This thing is not right. Such cruelty should not be. Like fish in a can' What in the world does it mean, Heiji?" 

Heiji shook his head. "Dunno yet. It's strange. What's even stranger is who the reporting officer was on this case." 

As he scrolled the screen up to the top of the document I stared at the name. "Toyama My _dad_?" 

*** 

HEIJI:   
Once Kazuha had left, returning to the sick-bay to allow Shiratori-san a chance to clean up, I leaned back in my chair and finished reading Toyama-san's report. He'd been aboard ship on an undercover case and had thought something odd was going on aside from the drug smuggling he'd suspected. The theft and return of his briefcase had been worrisome, especially when Toshini had asked to meet him on deck to discuss something he thought was wrong aboard. Except Toshini had never shown up. 

Suspicious of the circumstances, Toyama-san had pushed to have the ship searched. Nothing and no one was found, but evidence showed that Toshini must have gone overboard. Since no body was found and there was nothing to show that what had happened had been anything other than an accident the case had been closed. Somehow, though, I didn't think it _was_ an accident. Kazuha's dad certainly hadn't. _Nor does Akemi-san, I bet. Is she trying to find her father's killer?_

The truth was still obscured, though I was getting little flashes of light that revealed intriguing bits and pieces of what was happening. Whatever it might be, though, I was willing to bet my Dad was deeply involved. He and Kazuha's dad had been friends and associates for years. The two of them had always worked together when Toyama-san was with the force and – even now – they helped each other out. I remembered Dad's sudden decision to go on this cruise and wondered if he knew something was going to happen. 

I got to my feet and went to the door of the room I was sharing with Dad and looked in, intending to see if he was awake and planning on trying to question him. _Not that I expect much in the way of answers from that closed mouth old_ I stopped at the door, though, and frowned. Dad wasn't in his bed and since I'd been in the state room for over an hour getting access to the police files and the Toshini case in particular, I knew he had to have been gone for a while. I'd heard Kazuha sneak in – not even noticing me at the computer – and I was pretty sure I would have heard Dad leave. _Maybe he's in the toilet?_

Knocking on the bathroom door, I heard no answer. Nor was anyone inside when I opened the door. Now I was getting a bit concerned. Why would Dad be wandering around at this hour? _Unless, of course, he's investigating on the sly. Wouldn't put it past him, either._ I shook my head, glancing over our stuff. My clothes in their usual disarray in the suitcase beside my bed, Dad's folded away in the dresser, the suitcase pushed under his bed. _If I were the sort to go poking around in my father's stuff, now'd be the time._

I shook my head. Dad and I may not get along very well, but there are some things you just don't do. Spying on one's father behind his back was one of them. Not without a damned good reason. _Maybe he stopped by the sick-bay to check on Kazuha?_ She was under his guardianship for the trip, after all, and he took that sort of thing seriously. 

With Franky trotting beside me, I headed back down the hall. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
"Oh dear. What a mess," Mrs. Shiratori looked chagrined as her bag of knitting spilled over the floor, scattering balls of fluffy pink, white and blue yarn all over the place. If I were a more suspicious type I'd have thought she'd knocked the bag over on purpose. _Surely she isn't avoiding discussing whatever she's up to?_

As I picked up the yarn, I had to ask, "Just what _is_ it going to be, anyway?" 

Mrs. Shiratori chuckled. "Dear, I wish I knew. Knitting is more therapy for me than anything else. A redirection of thought. I'll probably end up making a blanket for someone." 

I frowned at the ball of yarn I was winding. "Therapy?" 

A slow smile was Mrs. Shiratori's answer as she picked up another ball and began winding it as well. "Yes. Sometimes life can become overwhelming. There are many demands on one's time and energy. So many people desperate to be helped. To be guided out of the traps that they often create for themselves. I like to think I do well at it, but one cannot do what I do without a certain amount of strain" 

Before I could open my mouth to ask just what it was Mrs. Shiratori _did_ to help people, the door to the sick-bay opened and the one person I didn't want to hear our conversation stepped in. 

"What th Are you two planning on killing somebody with all that yarn?" Heiji asked, grinning broadly. He had a running gag that the number of murders each year would decrease dramatically if all string, rope or other thread like items were outlawed. "Or setting a trap for the" 

I looked up at Heiji, startled that he'd stopped his tease so suddenly. He was looking over at Akemi-san's bed and I'd swear his face had gone pale underneath his tan. In the dim light, though, it was hard to be sure and he shook it off quickly. "Setting a trap for the killer," he continued hurriedly. 

Mrs. Shiratori surely noticed his hesitation. I saw her glance at him, then in Akemi-san's direction, but I doubted she'd seen much more than I had. Yet, _it's almost like he was looking at something._ Heiji's eyes had been focused, but I would have sworn he hadn't been looking at our near murder victim. He glanced at me, as if daring me to comment and I forced myself not to. 

"Much as I'd love to be able to capture the one who attempted such a cruel murder," Mrs. Shiratori said, packing the last of the knitting away and picking up her bag, "I fear my poor yarn is scarcely adequate to the task." She handed the bag to Heiji, who stared at it, then at her confusedly. "Come along, young man. You may as well make yourself useful and carry this for me." 

I fought back a snigger as Mrs. Shiratori guided Heiji out the door, pausing only long enough for Heiji to ask me if I knew where his father was. 

"Sorry, Hei-chan," I grinned at him and let my grin broaden at his glare, "But I have no idea. I thought he was in bed." 

"Perhaps he is speaking with my son," Mrs. Shiratori said. "All the more reason for you to accompany me." 

With a sigh and a glance my way that promised revenge for that 'Hei-chan', Heiji followed Mrs. Shiratori. 

*** 

HEIJI:   
I followed Shiratori-san with a feeling of resignation. I would have liked to give her the slip, but if Dad was with the Superintendent then there wasn't a point. One thing I was glad of. We were outside, on deck, and the cool morning breeze was helping wash the fuzz from my mind. I'd gotten no sleep yet and I was beginning to get tired. _Maybe that's why that ghost in the sick-bay hit me so hard. Glad I saw him before I got anywhere close._

In my mind's eye, I envisioned the ghost – the same man I'd seen on deck the night before – standing beside Akemi-san's bed and gazing down at his daughter. Ai would probably say I was seeing him there only because I knew who he was and because my mind was projecting feelings on something that was simply a memory. 

_My ghosts have never been quite so aware of their surroundings, either. Maybe Ai's right and I _am_ projecting what I think he ought to have felt onto him. Why would he even be _in_ the sick-bay, after all? He certainly didn't die there._ I shuddered, remembering the look on his face. The pain and longing of a father who had never meant to leave his children orphaned. I was just glad that Akemi-san couldn't see him. Not what was left of him. 

I shivered, trying not to think of the ship's propellers and failing. The very thought of being mangled on them was enough to make me almost physically ill. It was too close to my own brush with death. That near drowning wasn't the only time I'd come close to dying, but it was somehow becoming larger in my imagination – especially now. 

"Tell me, Heiji-kun, you have followed in your mother's footsteps, not so?" As I gave Shiratori-san a startled look, she smiled at me. "In kendo, of course. It is obvious that your love of mystery comes from your grandfather." 

Shrugging, I answered, "Yeah. I do a bit of kendo." Mom and I still sparred together, but not nearly as often as I'd have liked. It just wasn't ladylike for a middle-aged married woman to practice kendo. Especially not with her teenaged son. "Why?" 

Shiratori-san turned an unreadable gaze on me. "I have found that repetitive exercise can help the brain redirect itself around uncomfortable and difficult thought processes. Allowing the mind time to work out a more adequate way of dealing with the problem." 

My scowl must have been memorable. I could feel my brows pulling together. Only one thing stopped me from responding to her the way I would have responded to Kazuha. I can be a rude little brat, but I don't yell at my elders. Well, except Dad and that's a different story altogether. "Why do you say that?" I asked finally, once I'd gotten my temper under somewhat better control. 

A quiet nod of approval accompanied Shiratori-san's response. "I prefer to do this kind of thing in a more controlled environment," she said, more to herself than to me. "Would it surprise you to learn that your mother has asked me to see you? That I am somewhat experienced in helping people deal with their problems?" 

Light dawned and I came to a dead halt. "Yer a shrink? Mom called in a _shrink_?!" I felt sharp panic. I'd been trying so hard to keep them out of things. If Mom got too involved she might find out about the Black Organization and involve Dad. It wasn't that I didn't trust my parents' intentions but the last thing I wanted was to have those bastards turn their attention on my family. _Besides, who'd believe that I was seeing ghosts, anyway?_ I felt like the walls of a cage were closing in on me. Tell the truth and be believed and end up endangering everyone, or be disbelieved and wind up committed to an asylum. 

"While I have a Doctorate in psychology," Shiratori-san said quietly, "I prefer to consider myself a counselor, not a shrink." She cocked her head at me. "Nor do I like to offer my counsels to someone unprepared to consider them. To tell the truth, I only agreed to see you because your mother had been such a good friend to me at a time when I most needed one." 

Shaking my head, I turned and leaned on the railing. "What if I tell you to take a flying leap?" I demanded, all manners gone, erased by my fear. "I don't need a shrink." 

Shiratori-san leaned on the railing beside me and chuckled. "No, I don't think you do either. You have found your own coping mechanisms." She gazed off at the dawn light with a small smile. "Of course, the problem with some coping mechanisms is that they can create their own troubles, which then need more coping mechanisms to deal with. Fits of bad temper can drive those you love away from you when you need them most. I only suggest kendo as a redirection method because I sincerely doubt you'd like to knit." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
I glanced over at the door to the sick-bay, surprised to see it opening so soon. Shiratori-san had only been gone for half an hour and I didn't think that was long enough for her to have cleaned up. "Oh, Doctor. Captain. Akemi-san isn't awake yet." 

"And this is a problem how?" Dr. Makashino answered gruffly. "I just need to get some records the Captain wanted to see. Wait here, Captain." He went into his office while Captain Yamamori wandered around the sick-bay restlessly, pausing momentarily at Akemi-san's bedside to glare at her angrily. 

I blinked at the Captain, startled at his expression and he turned to me. "You think I'm horrible, don't you?" His tone was plaintive. 

"I don't think anything of the sort, Captain," I told him, firmly. "You're just concerned for the safety of the passengers and the crew. You have every right to be." Heiji was like that too, I realized. He was always at his most angry and bad-tempered when he felt helpless and out of control. _Or when someone he cares about is in danger. _

The Captain looked embarrassed. "It reflects badly on the ship to have something like this happen." He shrugged, returning to his restless movements as Dr. Makashino stepped out of the office and held out a thick manila folder. The Captain reached out to take it. "Thank you, Doctor. I'm sorry to have been so insistent, but" 

"It's not like I have much _else_ to be doing. Like sleep." The doctor's sentence went uncompleted as the papers in the folder slipped out and went flying all over. For a moment the three of us stared at the mess – the folder had been stuffed to capacity – then Dr. Makashino murmured, "DAMN DAMN THIS THING" He looked at his prosthesis angrily, then flushed sharply when the Captain muttered something about his language. "I'm sorry, Toyama-san." 

He didn't sound sorry, but I smiled anyway. "Don't worry, I'm used to it. Heiji says things like that all the time," I reassured Makashino as I got down to help pick up the papers. 

"Toyama?" The Captain's voice held an odd note and I looked up at him, seeing a momentary frown cross his face. Then he shook his head and muttered, more to himself than to me, "No, coincidence, surely." 

I wondered if he were remembering my father and decided not to ask. He was tense already and knowing that I was the daughter of the policeman who must have been a thorn in his side during that earlier case might make him even more upset. 

"Coincidence?" Dr. Makashino asked as he knelt on the floor and picked up more sheets of paper, "What do you mean, Captain?" 

Moving around the room restlessly as he went to pick up some of the more scattered papers, the Captain answered, "That cop. The one who was aboard when we lost Yuji." 

It was an effort not to say anything but somehow I just couldn't. Heiji was always complaining that I tended to talk too much, to reveal more than I ought to and that that was why he never told me anything. In a way he was right, infuriatingly so. I like people and I like to talk. He may call it gossip, but I call it connecting. Still, this time something made me keep my silence. It was almost as if a ghostly finger had been placed at my lips, hushing me. 

"Anyway," Captain Yamamori said as we finished gathering the papers and he tucked the folder under his arm. "I'd better go and look these over. I'll be seeing you at breakfast, Makashino. I trust you'll keep me posted regarding the young lady." With that, he stalked out the door. 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"The Chief Inspector and I _were_ talking," Shiratori told me as his mother shooed us out of their cabin. "He gave me some information about the case that" 

"Strongly suggests this probably _was_ a murder. Not to mention that Akemi-san's little drama probably _is_ aimed at whomever killed her father thirteen years ago." At the Superintendent's look, I grinned wryly. "I looked up the information about that case through the police files." 

Shiratori looked a trifle scandalized, but went on. "Did you know that someone sent your young lady's father an anonymous letter last month? One suggesting that the case might be solved if he were to be present for said 'little drama'?" 

"No, but it doesn't surprise me – and it explains why Dad decided to take this trip," I shook my head. The Old Man could be pretty sneaky sometimes. "Wonder why he didn't bring Kazuha's hey, what do you mean, 'my young lady'?" 

A small smile quirked the Superintendent's lips. "Oh, sorry. I must have misinterpreted." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets as we walked back down towards the sick-bay. "Have you had any further thoughts on the case, however?" 

"A few, but nothing provable," I shrugged. "There's not a lot of evidence this time. Anyone with access to those keys could have gotten into Akemi-san's room. The damage to the rope might have been done with a soldering iron, but I'm sure there's a few of those aboard ship." I glared down the hallway, recalling a certain very short detective's quote that it was a mistake to theorize without facts. _Unfortunately, facts are one thing we simply don't have yet. Theories in abundance but only a few shreds of evidence. Clues. NEED Clues._

"If the murderer is covering up a previous crime then there has to be something about Akemi-san's plot that would worry him," Shiratori said. "Yet I've gone through her notes and aside from a weird poem, there's nothing. Your father said something about looking into that angle." 

_Well, what do you know? Ask and thou shalt receive._ I glanced Shiratori's way. "It wouldn't be about bilge, would it?" At his nod, I frowned consideringly. "That was a poem Toshini left behind before he disappeared. Damn it, Dad. You're keeping secrets again." 

"He may be trying to protect you, Hattori-kun," Shiratori said soothingly. 

"Shyeah, right. Which is why he brought all of us on this trip in the first place. He knows perfectly well if a crime is committed somewhere near me, I end up involved." I've always enjoyed resolving mysteries, but that didn't change the fact that – like my chibified friend, Kudo/Conan – I am always in the thick of things when there's danger. Makes me wonder if Franky's always been with me and it's just my additional abilities that makes it possible for me to see him. _And if I looked, would I find another hanging around Kudo too?_ I shrugged. "So I guess my next move is to find him and see if he's found any clues. You going to talk to Akemi-san?" 

"Mmmm," Shiratori agreed. "It seems like the best thing I can do at the moment. Though I fear she's unlikely to be forthcoming about her intentions." He glanced my way. "Your father didn't tell me where he was going, though. Do you know where he is?" 

"Somewhere in the bowels of the ship, I'd bet. That poem was titled 'Bilge', after all." I nodded to Shiratori as we parted ways. "Give my regards to Kazuha and tell your Mom I'll think about what she told me." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
I yawned, feeling sleepy despite the naps I'd had over the night. _I can't be getting too old for this kind of thing,_ I thought, wiping my eyes. Dr. Makashino yawned as well, then gave me a sour look. "Quit that, girl. You're making _me_ sleepy." 

"Sorry," I apologized. "It's been a long night." I took another sip of the coffee that the doctor had poured for us. "But I don't know. I've had long" I yawned again. "nights before and never felt so" 

_What am I doing? I can't fall asleep._ I shook my head as hard as I could, trying to drive the sleepiness away and failing. My eyes felt so heavy. So hard to open. I yawned again, felt myself slumping and saw Dr. Makashino watching me with a strange, wide-eyed, look, his body almost unnaturally tense and straight. 

I shook my head again, struggling against sleep. Through the blur of exhaustion I could see Akemi-san lying on her side, her eyes open as she watched me. _When did she wak_ Then everything seemed to tilt sideways and I watched the tile floor grow closer. I barely felt the impact. Dimly, just before I went unconscious, I thought I heard the sound of something heavy landing nearby. 

To Be Continued

* * *

Author's Notes: For those wondering what the heck is going on... This is the third in series. Heiji gets his neat abilities in "Sense & Sensitivity" and gains Franky in "Nor'hanger Abbey".

Mrs. Shiratori's knitting is a direct bow to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.


	4. Bilge

Pursuance: Part 4: Bilge – In which a ship gives up its darkest secret.   
A Detective Conan/Hattori Heiji Fanfic   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements: All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. 

* * *

HEIJI: 

The sound of the ship's engines was a roar in my ears as I made my way through the tight passageway in the bowels of the ship. Beside me, Franky trotted, body moving with an odd sort of nervousness. He wasn't predicting a death, but he wasn't happy either. _Something's wrong,_ I realized, walking past a crewman with a determined stride that – I hoped – said that I belonged there. 

"Hey! What're ya doin' down here?" 

_So much for that idea,_ I sighed to myself, turning. _Inevitable, really. How many teenage boys do you see working aboard a ship, anyway?_ "Have you seen an older man down here? About half a foot taller than I am, similar complexion, droopy mustache?" 

"Yer na suppose t'be here," the crewman complained, latching onto his one thought with annoying tenacity. 

_Gee. I thought my Osaka was thick,_ I thought sarcastically as I glared at him. "I'm looking fer my father. Now didja see him or not?" 

Another voice chimed in, a skinny little guy dressed in overalls, his tan darker than even mine. "Yeahr, he wuz here. Show'd us'n's a badge. Ya gotta badge?" 

"I'm his son, not a policeman. Which way did he go?" I demanded, turning to face the skinny fellow. 

The two men looked at each other, then shrugged. "Asked us where th'bilge tanks were." 

When they didn't continue I growled under my breath and added, "So? Where?" 

"Straigh' down thet hall. There's'n access hatch in th'room there. Don know why he woulda bother, though. Ain't nothin' in there but shit 'n stuff." 

I gave the man a sour look, but nodded. "Thanks," I told him, then paused and added, "Don' do Osaka w'out more practice. Ya got th'most sucky accents I e'er heard." 

Listening to the two of them laugh as I headed down the hallway didn't make my mood any better. I ignored it, though. You have to get used to people acting like doofuses and thinking they're clever talking like an Osaka-ko when they haven't idea one what it sounds like. _Never mind, Heiji. Time to find the Old Man._

The room in question was at the very end of the hall, the door shut. Beyond was a storage room with a lot of boxes. A single bare bulb lit the room, casting deep shadows and causing the rusty walls to look stained with blood. _I have _got _to stop playing Silent Hill in the middle of the night,_ I thought. I half-expected something big, ugly, and long dead to come out swinging a huge knife at me. At least my ghosts really couldn't hurt me unless I touched them – and even that didn't hurt so much as simply upset me. 

"Dad? You here?" A faint, muffled, sound responded and I glanced around puzzledly, moving slowly through the room. Another sound, a voice but still indecipherable. "Dad?" I couldn't tell where the sound came from. The peculiar echoes made it seem like it was coming from above me, then below. 

More sounds followed, shouts whose words were simply too garbled to understand. Between the noise of the ship's engines and the echoes, I was getting nothing clearly. I swung around, trying to locate the noise. "Dad, just keep calling. I can't understand you, but I'll try and" 

My words were interrupted as another sound came to me. Not my Dad. Not Franky. Something else. Voices. They were screaming and crying and howling but they were not audible. I'd learned to tell the difference between real sounds and Franky's howls and this was not real, except to me. _No Now I can _hear_ them? God NO!_ I took a few steps sideways, away from the noise, and found myself dropping through a hole in the floor, splashing into the darkness below. 

As I sputtered and found my feet a very human voice said, "I _said_, 'Be _careful_, the hatch is open,'" my father growled at me. 

*** 

KAZUHA: 

"Kazuha" 

I moaned, dragging my eyes open with terrible effort and stared puzzledly at the pale grey toned surface in front of me. _Floor. Why am I on the floor?_ The voice spoke my name again, a sort of familiar voice, soft, cultured – a bit _too_ cultured – and normally self-controlled and certain of itself. It didn't sound nearly so certain at the moment, though. It sounded worried, if not positively frightened. _Superintendent Shiratori,_ I realized. 

Suddenly memory hit and I shoved myself upright. "Superintendent! Oh no! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. I was just so _tired_ suddenly." 

"Really? Hadn't noticed," Dr. Makashino added from nearby. He was leaning against the wall rubbing his forehead, where a large bruise was just beginning to form, and he looked like he'd been desperately ill. From the faint sour odor he _had_ been. "So was I. I don't understand what happened." 

I shook myself, forcing myself further awake. "I've never just fallen asleep like this," I protested, staring around. I was forgetting something. Something important. 

"You had help," the Superintendent said grimly and held out two plastic cups – the ones Dr. Makashino and I had been drinking from, I realized. Looking into the cup I stared for a long moment, trying to figure out what the Superintendent meant. Then I saw it. A thin scattering of white clinging to the wall of the cup, as if something had been only partially dissolved in the coffee. "You were drugged," he added, "Both of you were." 

Suddenly it hit me what I was forgetting. "Akemi-san!" I rose to my feet, turning towards the bed and swaying. As Shiratori-san caught me under the arm and kept me from falling over, I bit my lip. "She's gone Heiji's going to _kill_ me!" 

*** 

HEIJI: 

"Will you stop that? All your splashing is accomplishing is getting yourself wetter and making the room stink more. That ladder's useless anyway." 

I glanced sourly at my father, dragging the broken half of a ladder upright. "Maybe, maybe not," I disagreed. "It's better than standing around in stinking bilge water and waiting for someone to rescue us. Especially since you were _pushed_ in here!" As I shoved the ladder up against the wall I struggled to ignore the voices that had caused me to fall in. They were long past any help that I – or anyone else for that matter – could offer. They sounded in my head with all the force of one of Franky's howls and I had to know what lay beyond that wall. 

The light from my watch's flashlight glimmered on the surface of the water and cast strange reflections through the tank, limning my father's face, the ripples caused by my motions flickering on every surface. Beneath it, glowing ever so slightly to my eyes, Franky lay quietly waiting for me and I forced myself to ignore him and the way that he was so nonchalantly ignoring the fact that he was completely submerged. _He has no head, after all. He can't possibly need to breathe. _

Above me, enshadowed and partially obscured by layer of filth, I could see something that looked like a hatch. It had only been visible because of my angle, and because I was pretty sure I was going to find something there. It was just high enough, though, that I couldn't reach it without help, hence the ladder. 

"Better to have been _pushed_ than to have fallen over one's own two feet," Dad pointed out graciously. 

"I'm going to ignore that," I growled back, leaning the half-ladder against the wall and climbing it slowly. At nearly the top rung, I could reach the hatch easily and I began working on it. 

"What the hell do you expect to accomplish? Even if that is, as you say, a hatch, it's unlikely to lead anywhere remotely resembling _out_ of here. Do you really _want_ to know what's back there?" Dad's growl was accompanied by splashing as he headed over and grabbed the ladder before it slipped out from under me. "Damnit, boy, you are a trouble magnet!" 

"I know that, Dad," I muttered. "It's not like I haven't noticed I get more than my fair share of murders and mysteries." The only person I know with an equal, if not greater, attraction to such troubles was Kudo Shinichi. "Thanks," I added, though not very graciously. "Damn thing's rickety." 

Dad glanced downwards at the base of the ladder. "That's because it was broken off unevenly. You should have put the other end downwards." 

"Hell," I muttered. "It was hard enough moving the damn thing as it was, much less manipulating it into a better position. Hah. Got it." The shriek of rusty metal followed my words as I managed, somehow, to push the hatch in and sideways. It hadn't been used for years – thirteen, I rather suspected – and it took a lot of effort to get it to operate. 

Finally, though, I was able to poke my head into the hole and shine my light down, the voices screaming in my head now. The words were Chinese, barely comprehensible, but I didn't really need to know the specifics. The pleading, the weeping, the desperate cries for help that had gone unheard or ignored. Between the wall of the tank and the side of the ship was a narrow space, just wide enough for a grown man or woman to stand or sit in. Just long enough for twenty human bodies to be concealed. More than enough space for what had been left behind. 

"A human cargo," I whispered, forcing myself not to gag, somehow. "Illegal immigrants headed from China to America It was a hot summer. The hottest in years, breaking records everywhere. And this place must have been like an oven" 

My other sight was kicking in now and I could see them amid the rotting skeletons. Men and women, gasping for air, screaming for help. Left there to die. 

"Like fish in a can" I whispered, dropping off the ladder and leaning against the wall, fighting the nausea. "Bilge." 

*** 

KAZUHA: 

"How could this have happened? I thought you were keeping an eye on that girl," Captain Yamamori demanded angrily. He was pacing again, though his movements were more angry then agitated now. 

"Captain," Superintendent Shiratori's answer was quiet and calming. "It's scarcely the fault of Kazuha-san or Dr. Makashino that someone drugged their coffee. The main point is that the girl _is_ missing and may be in some danger." 

Yamamori came to a halt and glared down at the Superintendent. "Very well. I will select some men to search for the girl and take care of her. It's obvious that your efforts, and that brat you were working with, were less than satisfactory." 

As the Captain stalked out of Sick Bay, Superintendent Shiratori turned and looked at me and Dr. Makashino wryly. "I fear he's going to be difficult." He examined the cups again. "Doctor, is there any way to identify what was given to you?" 

"Not without much better equipment than I have." The Doctor's tone was sour. "This isn't a criminal laboratory. Though I _can_ take a good guess. Let me check." He walked over to a cabinet, getting his keys out. "I keep the sedatives locked in here. There's only one I can think of that would have the right effect" He stopped speaking as he turned the key in the lock and frowned. "Hello. What the hell?" 

"What?" I got up and looked at the lock, not seeing anything obvious about it. 

"It's unlocked." The Doctor shook his head. "I keep it locked all the time, for obvious reasons. I'm certain I wouldn't have left it open." 

"Does anyone apart from you have a key?" Superintendent Shiratori joined us, peering at the lock closely. "No obvious signs of its having been picked." 

"Of course, but it's kept locked up with all the others up in the Captain's office. And I don't know _when_ someone could have gotten into it with both Mrs. Shiratori and Toyama-san in here." He opened the door and looked into the cabinet, where neat rows of bottles and boxes were stacked. On the bottom shelf a gap – just large enough for a single bottle – drew the eyes immediately, and Dr. Makashino frowned as he stared at the spot. "Vicodin. That's what I was afraid of. But I don't know how." 

"How can you be so sure, Doctor?" Superintendent Shiratori asked, raising a brow. "Someone could have taken the bottle for other reasons." 

"Simple, Superintendent. Remember how sick I was when I woke up? I'm allergic to codeine." 

*** 

HEIJI: 

"They're just bodies, boy. You've seen enough of those – no, _more_ than enough of those – in the last year. Your Mom would say _too_ many." 

I ignored the Old Man in favor of leaning against the wall and gagging. Admittedly, the heavy, oily, odor of the sewage surrounding us was nauseating in and of itself. Combined with what I'd just seen, it was all I could do to keep myself from falling apart. Not since those hours when my ability had first manifested had I felt so utterly helpless and frightened. 

Part of the problem was the noise. The angry, scared and dying screams that echoed in my head were nearly enough to drive me to screaming too. Somehow I had to find a way to get past the fear and anger those cries were instilling in me. Somehow. I paused, remembering what Shiratori-san had said. She had meant something entirely different, I was confident, but maybe she was right about one thing. _Redirect. I can't make the voices stop and I really can't rely on anger to get me past this one. So_

I straightened, turning to face the middle of the tank, where my father was watching me with a strange expression on his face. I had no idea what it meant, but I'd have to wait to analyze it. Instead I took a deep breath and dropped into Kendo stance, imagining the _shinai_ in my hands, imagining a masked and armored opponent standing across from me. Imagining Okita Soshi. 

"Boy? What are you" My father's voice faded from my awareness as I lunged and parried, thrust and dodged. Not the neatest bit of work I'd ever done. My long time rival would have taken me apart if he'd really been there, but it was working. Ever so slowly I felt my pulse quieting, my anger and my fear melting away. "Hei-kun!" 

"Yeah, Dad. I'm okay." I opened my eyes and looked at the Old Man. "We have to get out of here. And somebody has to do something about those bodies. Find out who they were and how they got there. Find out who left them there to die." 

Dad shook his head. "You realize that may not be possible? Those people died years ago. Whomever it was that put them in there may have long since left this ship. The evidence is long since wiped away. There's only so much the law can do." 

I gave my father a long and level look. "And that, Dad, is why I don't want to be a cop." He frowned at my informality and I continued. "The police do their best and I have every respect possible for what you do. But the police are limited. They have to concern themselves with the living. With laws and social order and stuff like that." 

"Heiji, those are important things," Dad began. 

"I know. You'll never get me to disagree with that. The problem is that the police speak for the living. They have to. The living are the ones most affected by those laws, after all." I raised my head enough to look directly into his eyes. "But Dad? Those people died a long, slow and agonizing death. They died because someone was willing to use their desperation, their need for a better life, as a lever against them. They died because whomever did that didn't even care if their cargo made it safely to America – as long as he or she got their share of the loot." 

"One of those women was pregnant, Dad. She died in despair. Died knowing that the child she was carrying would never see the light of day. Died never even seeing her baby's face or hearing it cry." I swallowed, hard, continued, "And what about Toshini? He may have tried to save those people and it's probable he was killed before he could. He may or may not have been alive when he went overboard, but if he was, he got ripped to pieces by the propellers. He had a daughter and son that loved him. A daughter and son _he_ loved – that he would never have wanted to leave orphaned." 

"Heiji I" 

"I don't want to be a cop, Dad. There are enough of you to take care of the living. Someone has to speak for the dead. Because it's damned certain they can't speak for themselves." 

Dad went silent for a long moment. "Heiji," he started, voice urgent. 

"C'mon, Dad. Don't you understand? This is important." I had get through to him somehow and all my attention was focused on him. 

Shaking his head, Dad pointed at the bilge water. "We have a bigger problem than my understanding your quixotic tendencies, son. A very big problem. We have _got_ to get out of here. Now." 

"Huh?" I started to say, then I saw what he meant. When I'd fallen in the bilge water had been up to my knees. Now it was up to my hips and – worse – rising with increasing speed. "Aw, shit. Someone reversed the bilge pumps." Even as I said that, the situation moved from serious to deadly as the trap door leading into the tank slammed shut. 

*** 

KAZUHA: 

_Blast you, Heiji, where _are_ you?_ I glared around the hallway, the bare bulb above me casting twisted and unpleasant shadows on the walls. Ahead of me, Superintendent Shiratori opened door after door, looking into odd storage rooms and smaller closets, their use entirely mysterious to me. 

Two men were working along one hallway, but shouted inquiries, barely understood under the roar of a nearby engine, had given us no useful information. _They have to be here,_ I thought, worrying all the more. They'd been missing for nearly two hours now, after all. 

"HEIJI!" I shouted, unable to hear my own voice past the noise. "WHERE ARE YOU!" 

It was useless. The noise level was just too much. If he could hear me he couldn't shout loud enough to answer. _Maybe they went somewhere else?_

Superintendent Shiratori seemed to think the same. He gestured to me, pointing towards the exit and I nodded. There wasn't any point to staying down here anymore. As I turned, intending to walk up the stairs, however, I felt something strange. A feeling sort of like one I'd felt before. A cold chill running up my spine. Every hair on my body standing on end. 

There was a sound. A sound not in my ears but in my head, _or my heart,_ I thought. A sound like an animal crying out in pain. A howl of anguish that made me stumble sideways, the Superintendent catching hold of my arm as I did so. "KAZUHA?" he shouted into my ear. 

I shook my head, trying to pay attention to the weird feeling. It was important, I _knew_ it was important. I had to listen to it. I closed my eyes and suddenly an image formed in my mind's eye. An animal's head, burning itself into my retina, a howling wolf or dog, black and tan, the black dark as the oil staining the floor, the tan reminding me of Heiji's somehow. Its eyes were huge with panic. The word "BILGE!" forced itself into my thoughts as the image disappeared. 

_Heiji_, I thought immediately, not sure why the image in my head immediately made me think of my friend but certain that it had significance. _He needs help._ I tried to listen to the cries in my head, to follow them, and found myself running down the hall towards a closed door, throwing it open. 

Superintendent Shiratori ran up behind me and I stared around into a crate filled storeroom. It had to be here. Had to be. I turned to look at the two crewmen and saw them approaching. "HELP ME!" I shouted at them. "WHERE'S THE HATCH TO THE BILGE TANK?" 

Instead of answering, one man walked towards me, even as the other swung a pipe at Superintendent Shiratori. I stepped backwards, pretending to be frightened and not having to work very hard at it. Still, this was the sort of thing I could handle and I did what came naturally. As he rushed me, reaching out to grab me by the throat, I caught him by the wrist and under the arm, lifting and twisting, using his own weight and speed against him. 

He landed hard, the air knocked out of him, and I continued the move, twisting him onto his belly, bringing his arm backwards and upwards. _One would think that, considering how many murderers I've met with Heiji, that I'd be used to this._ This wasn't the first time I'd found myself forced to use my training on a real attacker, but – as always – I thanked the Gods that I'd made no errors in the move. Beneath me, the man, several times bigger than me but trapped in an arm lock and with his elbow bent near the snapping point, went completely still. I held my position, paying close attention to his movements, afraid that he might try and take advantage if I seemed to weaken. "_I'll break your arm if you so much as move!_" I just prayed he wouldn't force me to follow through on the promise. 

At the same time I saw Superintendent Shiratori come up beneath the other man, blocking a blow from the pipe with one hand, even while the heel of his other hand struck his attacker in the chin, hard. They were more closely matched in weight, but Mr. Shiratori had the advantage when it came to training. His blow landed with scientific precision and the man dropped to the ground, moaning. 

"KAZUHA! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" 

"CAN YOU FIND THE HATCH? I'LL KEEP THIS GUY OCCUPIED," I answered, panicked still by the cries in my head. They were getting fainter and somehow I knew that if they disappeared entirely I'd lose Heiji. "HURRY!" 

Mr. Shiratori looked around, frowned at the floor and seemed to be thinking fast. "THAT BOX!" he shouted and rushed at one wooden crate that was offset from the others. He pushed and shoved and finally forced the crate onto its side, revealing that its bottom was missing. Beneath it was a metal wheel that the Superintendent spun around fast, opening the hatch. 

Water spilled out, stinking, oily and smelling of the sea and other less pleasant things. _Oh no. If Heiji's in there_ The howls grew fainter and I was sure I'd lost him. Then a brown hand, scarred across its back, grasped the side of the hatch and a dark head rose above the water, followed by another. Father and son pulled themselves up quickly and Heiji shook himself off, resembling nothing quite so much as a large hound as he did so. He grinned at me, though beneath the grin was a look of utter exhaustion and relief. "Took you long enough." 

To Be Continued 

* * *

Author's Notes: 

Sorry to take so long with the update. Been sick. Again. Getting really sick and tired of being sick and tired. 

Heiji's language skills were inspired by the fact that Heiji's Seiyuu speaks better English than Jody. He's apparently an Osaka-ko, too. 

The situation in the bilge tank, and what was hidden there was inspired by that incident a bit back when some illegal immigrants suffocated in the truck trailer they'd been taking to America. 

Heiji isn't the only one who should stop playing Silent Hill at night. 

Yes, Franky has a head. It just doesn't stay with Heiji. 

Shiratori reminds me of Mitsuhiko. He's not stupid (wouldn't have made Superintendent on stupid, despite the Peter Principle) but he tends to come up with some rather odd twists to his ideas when trying to solve cases. One suspects that he's got an active imagination that he has to forcibly restrain when he's working. Leading to a rather rigid way of thinking. The fact that he doesn't _ever_ get mad at Conan or hit Conan for interfering with a case, though, makes me think there's more to him than meets the eye. 

Doctor Makashino looks like a Japanese version of Doctor Romano of late and (personally) regretted memory in the American TV show, E.R. Dropping a helicopter on the poor guy really was adding insult to injury in my opinion. 


	5. The Play's the Thing

Pursuance: Part 5: The Play's the Thing – In which a murderer is confronted with the past.   
A Detective Conan/Hattori Heiji Fanfic   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements: All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. Not to mention reviewing even after being Beta Reader. 

* * *

HEIJI:   
"Honestly. If it isn't one of you or the other it's both." Mom gazed at the two of us levelly, voice very quiet and gentle. Didn't make her scolding any easier for either of us to take, though. Mom was a past master of the practice of mild rebukes that made you feel like you were the lowest of the low for having distressed her. _At least she waited until we'd cleaned up. _

*AAACHOOO* Dad grumbled into his mustache as he rubbed a towel through his hair. I refused to help him out. This time, at least, he was the one who'd gotten into trouble first. Besides, from the way Kazuha was glaring at me, I was going to get her version of scolding pretty soon. _Probably involving a good sharp smack to the back of my head, if I know her._ Oddly, I felt my lips twist into a grin at the thought. 

Before Mom could say another word, though, Superintendent Shiratori spoke up. "It's not that I want to interfere with family politics," he said politely. "I do understand how distressing this is, but." 

"You need us to tell you exactly what happened," Dad nodded, wiping his face and mustache off carefully. "Not much to tell, really. I told you about that clue Toshini had left us and I'd decided to at least take a look at the bilge tanks again." 

"Again?" I demanded. "What do you mean, again?" 

"Kazuha's father was aboard the ship when Toshini disappeared," Dad explained. "Investigating another case. Toshini had contacted him while he was at dinner, gave him a note that said there was something desperately important that Toyama needed to know and asked for a meeting up on deck at midnight." 

I nodded. "Except he never showed up. Toyama-san convinced the Captain to have the ship searched and when the man wasn't found, insisted on further investigation. It wasn't until they docked that they found the remnants of his uniform in the ship's propellers. Toyama-san _did_ get access to the diary with Toshini's little haiku, but" I paused, realizing that Dad was about to explode. 

"WOULD YOU STOP GETTING INTO THE POLICE FILES WITH _MY_ PASSWORD!!!!" 

I blinked at my father innocently. "But, Dad, I _have_ to use yours. I don't have one of my own." If I was going to get clobbered for poking around where I really wasn't supposed to be, I might as well do so with style. "If it bothers you so much, why don't you change it?" 

"Deep breath. Deep breath, Hattori. Deep breath." Dad's mutters were just barely audible under his breath as he glared at the floor. "DAMNIT BOY" 

"Not now, husband." Mom used her fan to – lightly – tap Dad on the top of the head. "It is not – entirely – the boy's fault that he is his father's son." I blinked at her, but no explanation was forthcoming. _Someday I'm going to figure them out. Then I'll probably faint from sheer shock,_ I thought, as my father glared at her and sighed. "Now then. Would one of you continue?" 

"The haiku, referring to the bilge tanks the way it does, suggested to Toyama that there might be something suspicious going on there. Except examination didn't really reveal anything. The entrance hatch to that separate section may have been better concealed," Dad said finally. "Or perhaps the rust pattern that gave Heiji the clue that it was there hadn't formed yet." 

"That and we were at a different angle. Did Toyama-san go down inside?" I asked. 

"Yes, but he was looking for something smaller." Dad shook his head. "Remember, he was there on a drug smuggling case. He was expecting – at most – a waterproof box somewhere on the bottom. He probably scanned the rest of the tank, but" 

Shiratori frowned. "But, by the time he got down there, the people hidden in that other chamber were well and truly dead." 

Kazuha looked utterly sick. "How, though? Did whomever it was who left them there kill them?" 

"They might as well have," Shiratori-san said gently, putting a hand on Kazuha's arm. "The heat alone would have done it. Heat stroke. Suffocation. The human body can take a lot of stress, but not for extended periods. It would have been like an oven in there." Her expression didn't reveal much, but I thought there was deep anger there. 

"That's horrible!" Kazuha looked at us, at my father and the Superintendent. "Absolutely horrible. Whoever did that They can't be allowed to get away with it!" 

I gazed at my father quietly and saw his lips tighten. "I don't intend to let the culprit get away if I can help it. The trouble is, we have no way of knowing who was behind the crime." 

To my surprise, Shiratori-san sniffed. "Nonsense, Heizo-kun. You may not have enough evidence to convict, but I'm certain you have enough to know in your heart who is most likely to be the criminal. Even if your ethics as a police officer do not permit you to accuse someone of a crime without any evidence." 

The look on my father's face, the expression of a man who has eaten a particularly bitter piece of lemon, was unforgettable. 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
"Heiji?" 

Heiji turned to look at me as we walked down to the Medical Bay, one brow cocked in that curious expression he gets when he's thinking of far too many things at once. I knew I wasn't the first thing on his mind, might not even be in the top ten, and – oddly enough – didn't feel bothered by that at all. "What is it?" His tone was exasperated and I realized I'd been staring at him, gazing at his face as if I'd never seen it before. 

"Are are you okay?" I immediately regretted the question. Heiji has always hated being mothered. His response, rolled eyes and a shake of the head, was what I ought to have expected and I forced myself to respond the way I usually would. "Don't you look at me that way, Hattori Heiji! You nearly got killed down there. If I hadn't paid attention to that dog." My voice trailed off as I realized what I was about to say. It was one thing to listen to one's inner instincts – even if they did take some weird form – but another to tell someone like Heiji about them. He'd laugh his fool head off. 

Rather to my surprise, Heiji paled slightly and he stared at me. "Dog? What dog?" 

I shook my head. "Never mind. I have no intention of telling you something that you'll turn into a joke." I walked past him, intending to catch up with the others and he snagged my arm. "Heiji!" 

"C'mon, Kazuha. Give! What did you mean? What dog?" 

I was about to tell him off the way I normally would but something in his eyes, in his whole expression, pleaded with me. With a sigh, I shrugged. "When Superintendent Shiratori and I were looking for you I had a strange vision. A dog's head yelping for me with your voice. That's how I knew you were in trouble." I glared at him, waiting for laughter and daring him with his eyes to do so. 

To my surprise, though, he dropped my arm and turned a glare off to the side momentarily. He muttered something under his breath, so soft I only picked up a word or so, "Show yourself to her." At last he turned and smiled at me. "Well, you've always been the one who sees to my luck with your li'l bags. Maybe you've gotten stronger." 

Though I wanted to glare at him, something in his wry expression kept me from doing so. He occasionally teased me about the omamori my Mom had taught me to make, even though I knew he was also convinced that they worked. Sometimes he'd suggest that I ought to become a Shinto Priestess when I grow up – the last thing in the world I'd want to be. "Bite your tongue, Hattori Heiji," and, a moment later, "Put that thing back in your mouth!" 

Heiji used a handkerchief to wipe his lips, smirking still, and sauntered beside me, looking more cheerful suddenly. "So, what kind of dog was it?" 

"I don't know. An akita maybe? Or a shepherd. It's not like I know much about animals. A black dog, whatever it was." I shrugged, though a memory was niggling at me. _No, can't figure it out._ At last I decided it wasn't something worth worrying about. Heiji and his father were safe and if some power had decided to manifest itself to me, I didn't feel changed or likely to experience it again. "What are we going to do now?" 

*** 

HEIJI:   
I hesitated over my answer. I was fairly sure Dad had a couple of suspects in mind when it came to those murdered immigrants. I was equally certain that whomever hid those poor people in the bilge tank had probably murdered Toshini Senior. "Superintendent Shiratori needs to contact his superior regarding the bodies. He took photos, so we have some evidence even if the culprit finds away to get rid of them." I shook my head. "As for the current case – we have to find Akemi-san. I'm just hoping what I think happened to her is right." 

Kazuha frowned at me as I opened the door for her and followed her into the hallway leading to the Medical Bay. "What do you think happened to her? Or are you going to play this one close to your chest as usual." 

I grinned. "Sore wa himitsu desu," I answered, giving her my best Xelloss style grin. 

"I'll 'it's a seeeecret' you." The smack she delivered across my arm was something of a relief, a normality that I was beginning to feel was rapidly disappearing from my life. She seemed to understand that, because her expression – beneath the usual disgust she'd get when I teased her – had a faint hint of satisfaction. "There's just no talking to you." 

As Kazuha stalked ahead of me and entered the Medical Bay, I glanced sideways at Franky. _Don't suppose you could help me find the girl before she gets killed?_ I didn't get any sense of agreement from the big oaf and I rolled my eyes at him. It would have been too much to hope for, I guess. _If nothing else, though, it must mean she's not in any danger yet._ That was the main reason I wasn't too worried. Franky would have been howling if Akemi-san was likely to die any time soon. Somehow I had a feeling she'd slipped off when Kazuha and the Doctor had collapsed, possibly realizing that she was in danger if she stayed where she was. 

Following Kazuha into the Medical Bay I found myself nearly walking into my father and Shiratori. "Watch it, boy." Dad glared at me. "Pay attention to where you're going. And if you _must_ scuff your feet the least you could do is ground yourself before touching people. I'm getting tired of all the static shocks." 

I shrugged, sticking my hands into my pocket. "Where's Doc Makashino?" 

As my father gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath about cocky, arrogant, rude little brats Shiratori shook his head, "He wasn't here when we arrived. We're going up to the Captain's office and see if he knows where the Doctor might be." 

"I'll just come along, then." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
The sound of arguing came through the doorway, two men's voices, one the Captain's, the other Toshini-san's. "I'm telling you, I have no idea what happened to her, sir! I haven't seen her since last night." 

"She's your sister. You're telling me she hasn't made contact with you at all?" the Captain's voice was low and angry. "I don't believe you." 

Toshini-san made a helpless sound and Superintendent Shiratori came to his rescue by knocking at the door. The two men went silent and the door shot open. "WHAT oh. You. Come in, Superintendent. Maybe you can talk sense into this man." He glanced over the Superintendent's shoulder. "What the" He stared at Uncle Heizo and Heiji. "What are they here for?" 

"Captain, we've found something important. We need to talk." 

After a moment's hesitation, the Captain sighed. "All right. Come in." He stepped aside long enough for Uncle Heizo and the Superintendent to step in, then moved to block Heiji and I. "Not you two. This isn't a matter for children!" 

The door started to slam shut in our faces. 

HEIJI:   
"They're involved. Let them in." I was deeply surprised that it was my father who was defending our right to be in the room. Yamamori glared at him momentarily but my father – with years of experience glaring down criminals – won. Grudgingly, the Captain opened the door for us. "Heiji. No comments unless you have something important to say." 

Butter wouldn't have melted in my mouth as I mimed zipping my lips. I sauntered into the room. _Hail, hail, the gang's all here._ Doctor Makashino was leaning against one wall, looking irritated at the whole proceedings. Toshini was standing, hunch-shouldered and nervous, across from the Captain's desk, his collar buttoned high around his skinny neck and his eyes wide and frightened. The Captain walked back to his desk but remained standing. "Well?" 

"We need to use your ship to shore radio," Superintendent Shiratori said quietly. "We've made an unfortunate discovery." 

The Captain blinked. "I wish you could, but it's been broken for the last twenty-four hours." He shrugged, looking irritated. "We've been working on repairs, but." 

Dad frowned. "You mean there's no way to contact the shore?" As he stared around the office I followed his gaze. A small table in a corner with a piece of wood and an electric stylus of some sort. There was a chart, some shelves and a coffee machine against another wall and right beside where I was standing was a computer. It was turned off and its keyboard drawer was shoved in. "The computer?" 

"I don't use it much. Hate the stupid thing," the Captain explained. "Suppose you could use it to email someone. Though I don't know how long it'd take." 

I glanced at my father and raised a brow. I had an idea but I knew if I spoke up now I'd get yelled at. Still, email wasn't a good way to make contact. It was so easy for things to get lost in the ether. After frowning a moment, Dad nodded and I said, "May I?" 

"Be my guest," Captain Yamamori sighed. "Doubt you'll get much use out of it." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
Heiji bent over the computer, whistling tunelessly as it booted up. Then he used the mouse to select a few things and a minute later had brought up an IM screen. _Oh. That's what he's up to. But there's no one on IM at headquarters, surely_

"Agasa-sensei?" Heiji's father asked curiously. "That weird old man you visit in Tokyo?" 

"Yeah. He's usually on." Heiji typed a few words onto the screen and waited. A second later there was an answer. "Okay, Prof. I need you to make a call." 

I noticed both the Doctor and the Captain staring at my friend, their eyes narrowed. "I don't understand" Doctor Makashino murmured. 

"Shhh." Heiji was typing rapidly and something on the screen made him chuckle. "Dad, they want proof it's you. They won't listen to the Professor without it." 

"Tell him to tell those idiots that if they don't listen to him I'll rip their badges right off their shirts and feed them the things with a side order of takoyaki with Kondogawa-san's special sauce." Heiji blinked at his father, grinned even more broadly and typed again. Another minute, then Heiji nodded. "Dad, you do the typing now. You know what you want to say." 

As Uncle Heizo sat down at the computer, Heiji moved out of the way. "Oh, is this that woodburning art thing that Doctor Makashino mentioned?" He pointed towards the corner. 

The Captain was watching Uncle Heizo with a puzzled expression. "Yes," he said absently. "What is going on?" 

"Oh, I IM'd a friend of mine," Heiji explained off-handedly. He was about to say more when the phone rang. "Aren't you going to answer that?" 

The Captain shook his head and I thought I saw him looking rather pale. "It's just that bug in the system. No one's supposed to use the phones right now while the repair crew tries to fix it." 

"Ya oughta leave it off the hook," Heiji picked up the phone, listened for a moment, then set it to one side. "Yeah, I see yer point. Nothing but static and a voice whispering 'Dimsdale'." 

Superintendent Shiratori forced back a small snort but the Captain and I just stared at Heiji, uncomprehendingly. Heiji grinned at us and shrugged. "Anyway, Captain. I'd been meaning to ask you, how much of the crew is the same right now as it was thirteen years ago?" 

Raising a brow, the Captain shrugged. "Doctor Makashino and myself. A few of the sailors. Why?" He looked supremely puzzled, though I could guess why Heiji wanted to know. Whomever the person was who'd tried to kill Akemi-san almost had to be covering up his crime of thirteen years past. 

"No one else, then. Interesting." Heiji wandered over to the table in the corner, picking up the stylus and sniffing at it. "Whoof. This thing smells nasty. Like plastic. Should take better care of your tools, Captain." There was a speculative look in his eyes that I liked. It meant that something was starting to gel in his head. 

Angrily, the Captain walked over and grabbed the stylus. "PUT THAT DOWN, BOY!" 

Uncle Heizo glanced over his shoulder. "I told you not to be a nuisance. Why don't you find something else to do? Maybe go sniffing for clues. Make yourself useful." 

With a sour look, Heiji nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Right. I'm outta here." 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"You're whistling." 

I glanced sideways at Kazuha as I sauntered down the hallway. "Am I?" I was beginning to get the glimmerings of an answer and while it wasn't a pretty one, it _was_ a solution. The question was, could I possibly prove my case? I could accuse the man I thought was guilty of trying to kill Akemi-san, but he could easily deny it. _And what was the deal with the phone? I _did_ hear a ghostly voice but it wasn't real I mean not dead._ More, I suspected, of Miss Toshini's efforts. The silly girl was going to get someone hurt pulling stunts like that. I had a sinking feeling it was going to be her. 

Kazuha put a hand on my arm, looking up at me. I had to force myself to keep breathing. It was getting harder and harder not to notice the way her eyes looked when they met mine. The worry and pride in them. "Yes. You know who the killer is, don't you?" 

I shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. I." I was about to continue when I saw someone leaning on the railing. For only the briefest moment I thought it was Toshini's ghost again, but then I realized I was seeing him by normal sight. I'd been fooled by the reddish gold of the sunset reflecting off his whites. I hurried after him, closely followed by Kazuha. 

As I caught up, Toshini turned and looked at me puzzledly. "Heiji-san? Is there a problem?" 

I eyed him, noting the unbuttoned collar and casual air. _Damn. She was right there!_ I glanced down at Franky, annoyed at him for not having cued me in on the trick and doubly annoyed at myself for expecting him to. _I can't depend on him to solve my cases for me. He's here to help me keep people from being killed, or at least find their bodies, not find out why._

"Heiji? What's wrong?" Kazuha came up beside me and looked worriedly up at me. 

"I'm an idiot. The person dressed as this man up in the Captain's office was really his sister." I gestured at Toshini-san and he paled. "And you knew it, didn't you?" 

***

KAZUHA:   
It only took Heiji a few minutes to force an explanation from Toshini-san. He still knew very little about what his sister was up to but he had assisted her in making herself up as him and had been told that she was trying to prevent a crime. All he knew was that it somehow had something to do with their father's death. 

"She's trying to force his killer to reveal himself," Heiji said. "She was using the play to remind whomever it was. To make a guilty conscience react." 

"The play's the thing," I couldn't help saying and Heiji glanced my way, nodding approvingly. "She's using Hamlet's trick and we know what happened to _him_." I was getting scared. "Heiji, we should go back to the Captain's office. Find her." 

Glancing at his watch, Heiji shook his head. "Not likely. She probably got out of there as soon as she could." He eyed Toshini. "Could your sister rig up a system that would make phone calls with recorded messages?" 

"Oh, yes. You connect it to another phone in the system and set it to connect up randomly. We used that trick for a play we did at Abe Hiromi's house last year." I was rather puzzled at the almost guilty look Heiji cast down towards the floor beside him. He was doing that sort of thing a lot lately, refusing to explain why, and it bothered me a lot. 

Ignoring my expression, Heiji rubbed at the back of his head. "Where is she likely to be?" 

"I." 

"Toshini, your sister is putting herself in a lot of danger. She's trying to flush a killer using herself as bait. That attempt at hanging her wasn't a joke." 

"She said she" 

Heiji growled a curse. "She what? Did it to herself? The _hell_ she did you idiot! She would have _died_! Are you saying she was trying to kill herself?" 

Toshini shook his head. "She said her failsafe failed it was an accident. She wanted it all to look like someone had tried to kill her without That doesn't make any sense, does it? There wasn't a failsafe." His eyes were wide and panicked now. "oh god" 

Heiji nodded vociferously, "Now. Where do we find her?" 

*** 

HEIJI:   
"Damnit all to hell!" I hit the wall of the stateroom where Akemi-san was supposed to be hiding. "Too late." The room was empty but there were signs of someone having been there and having been very busy with the make-up. Plastic and gunk and 'blood' soaked tissues. It looked to me like Akemi-san had been making quite a mess of herself. I glanced out the window. The skies had darkened into night. 

Kazuha fiddled with a piece of latex. "What is she trying to do?" 

"Make herself look like her father's ghost," I answered and Toshini paled. "You look like your dad, Toshini. You and she both do. And she's made herself up to look like you before, in that 'White Devil Wolf Woman' play." I remembered the photo from last night and was unsurprised when Toshini nodded weakly. "She thinks she knows who the killer is now and she's trying to force him to confess." 

Crying, Toshini collapsed onto the nearby bed. "I don't know what to do!" he wailed. "Nee-chan always makes the plans!" 

As Kazuha comforted our nervous friend, I wandered over to the phone and examined the little setup. _No wonder the maintenance people couldn't find the source. Even if they could trace the call she'd just have to move the thing._ The timer had been set to a specific time, 11pm, more than two hours away. Thoughtfully, I played the message. 

The sound was unmistakable. The grinding swirling sound of propellers in water. A sound I'd never forget. Then, soft but unmistakable. "Murderer. Come and pay. Where you killed me. Come and pay." 

Toshini gasped and shuddered. "She's mad. I have to stop her. But how?" 

I hesitated. "Make yourself up too." 

"What?" Both Kazuha and Toshini stared at me and I grinned, a sharp toothed, tight little grin that caused both of them to get nervous. "I don't understand," Toshini protested. "How will that help?" 

"Because, your sister has to have figured out that it's one of two people." I reached up and turned my cap, thinking hard. "It could have been one of the lower ranked crew, but you don't get a setup like that fixed up without somebody in charge. The Doctor and the Captain are the only two people who might have been in a position to handle something like this." 

Kazuha glared at me. "That doesn't explain why you want Toshini-san to pretend to be a ghost too?" 

I rose to my feet. "We don't know where Akemi-san has gone, but it's damned sure she's off to find one of two people. Except I know which of those two would kill her and which is only partly involved. By now, she's sure, too, or probably is." I pointed to the set up, particularly at the phone number it was programmed to dial. "So we're going to provide her with an understudy." 

"Doesn't that just put _him_ at risk?" 

Toshini was looking pale at Kazuha's question, but then he straightened. "You need me to distract the killer, right? I'm willing." 

"Good man," I nodded. "Then let's go. There's something important we have to do, first." 

*** 

KAZUHA:   
"He's coming." The voice of the man beside me was soft and tense. 

I shifted nervously, then forced myself to stand as still as possible in the shadows of our vantage point on the deck above. The light that usually lit the lower deck was out but I thought I could see a figure standing there as well. It hadn't been there a few minutes ago but there were plenty of places to hide amid the lifeboat equipment. 

The man Heiji believed to be the killer walked slowly and cautiously down the way, his left hand hidden at his side. He was glaring into the shadows and as the figure moved, he paused. "Who do you think you're fooling, girl?" 

There was dead silence. A cold and angry silence. He continued. "You think you're going to get a confession out of me? Some sort of tearful, or terrified, admission of guilt?" 

"You murdered them. I heard what the Superintendent said." Akemi-san gave up all pretence of playing her father's ghost. She stepped out into the light, the bloody wounds that she'd given herself stark and ugly. "All those poor people you left in the bilge tank. Then you murdered my father to keep him from telling." 

I glanced towards the lifeboat where I knew Heiji and Toshini were hiding, and had been for over an hour. The jig was up. If the man knew Akemi was a fake ghost it was certain he wouldn't believe Toshini was one either. 

The man snorted. "And you can prove this, how?" As Akemi-san clenched her fists, he laughed, loudly. "Come now, girl. Was this the extent of your plan?" He shook his head. "You're pathetic. Pitiful." 

"DAMN YOU!" 

I realized everything was going wrong. Heiji's plan, to provide a secondary 'ghost' wasn't going to work if the murderer didn't believe there was a ghost at all. I glanced over at my companion. He was tense and unmoving. 

The murderer's hand came up. "Oh, quite likely, girl. But not for a while yet. And not in your lifetime." I stared, realizing what was about to happen. 

He had a gun. 

To Be Continued 

* * *

Author's Notes: 

Been forgetting to respond to reviews so 

Chibi-Nao: Thanks! 

Ytak: If you read the first of my Heiji stories on FF.net (Sense & Sensitivity) you'll see how this Heiji got the ability to see ghosts. 

GhostAngelGirl: Thanks! 

Amaya Shinkuyoake: Yeah, too many irons in the fire to let me write anything as quickly as I'd like. (Points at Amusing Interlude, which ought to have been done by now.) I know the POV thing gets to some people, but I've always liked it as a way to get into the heads of more than one character – necessary in some stories. 

Mystic: Two more chapters will finish this one off. So I'll probably be done by the end of this week, given I don't get sick again. (Kosagi growls at the little germs and virii that her children keep bringing home for her.)// Yeah, the head is with Kazuha. Heiji needs to keep an eye on her, after all. Or something. Heh.//If Hattori senior was a little less practical he might figure it out. As it is. 

Icka: (glomp) Thanks! I like hearing from you even if you _did_ review already via beta. Hopefully I resolved the codeine question to your satisfaction? 

Ke: Thanks! 

Other Notes: 

Someday I may elaborate on Hattori Senior's misspent youth. Once I convince him to let me.

I probably watch far too much anime. So does Heiji. Funny that.

"White Devil Wolf Woman" is "Bride with White Hair." A lovely martial arts movie with a rather unusual villain.


	6. The Haunter and the Haunted

Pursuance: Part 6: The Haunter and the Haunted – In which a murderer is forced to face the truth.   
A Detective Conan/Hattori Heiji Fanfic   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements: All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. Not to mention reviewing even after being Beta Reader. 

* * *

HEIJI:   
"NO!" 

Before I could stop him, Toshini was on his feet and running towards the man about to kill his sister. Only one thing saved him. The shock of seeing another blood stained version of his long ago victim caused the murderer to hesitate. It wasn't very long, but it was just long enough. I continued my own attack, yelling, "Damnit, Toshini, I told you to stay _put_!" 

The oar I'd grabbed struck the killer's forearm, forcing it down just before the gun fired. I spun, as quickly and as hard as possible, striking my opponent amidships and knocking him to the ground. Somehow, through all this, however, he managed to keep hold of the gun. 

He rolled sideways, trying to get to his feet. I could hear a shout and running feet but they weren't going to be in time. I spun the oar around and struck again. I'd break his wrist in the process but I _had_ to disarm him. This time I was rewarded with the clatter of metal on wood as the pistol spun off to the side. 

As the weapon spun towards the railing I cursed. We had eyewitnesses enough to provide evidence against the killer, but the hard evidence of a gun with his fingerprints would have made the case a lot tighter. Then a foot came down on the spinning weapon, stopping it just before it went over the edge. "Sorry to be so late," Shiratori said, panting. "I'm afraid I injured my ankle jumping down from the upper deck." He'd had to stay up there to keep out of sight, there not being enough cover down where we were. 

"What the hell is going _on_ here?" The Captain's voice was an angry bellow only mitigated by his gasps. "What the _hell_" 

I looked down at the man. "Simple, Captain. It may or may not be possible to prove you killed Toshini Yuji but it's pretty damned obvious you just tried to kill his daughter." 

He pulled himself to his feet. "Nonsense." Drawing himself up, he glared at Akemi-san. "I was playing along with her little drama. It was obvious she'd decided to make things more interesting by using her father's death as part of her theatrics." 

"You were going to kill me!" Akemi shouted at him and her brother tried to quiet her. If I couldn't see the real thing, watching those two, in their 'blood' soaked outfits and made up scars, would have been a lot more unpleasant. As it was, their father behind them, watching the proceedings with a distant air of interest, made their theatrics all the more obvious and pathetic. _Nothing like the real thing to make the imitations unimpressive,_ I thought. 

"I was playing along. If this brat hadn't hit me with the oar I wouldn't have pulled the trigger at all. He's lucky no one was killed." 

*** 

KAZUHA: 

I felt a surge of anger as I hurried down the stairs to the lower deck and listened to the proceedings. It was obvious Yamamori was guilty but he had such a plausible story. A good lawyer _could_ get him off if they worked at it. One of my father's biggest disillusionments with the police had always been the inability to actually convict someone they knew for certain to be guilty. It looked to me like this was going to be one of those cases. 

Noticing two men approaching, I moved in to stand beside Heiji. I couldn't prevent Uncle Heizo from being angry at him but I could hope that my presence would keep him from making that anger public. Nothing upset Heiji more than being reprimanded in front of everyone for his efforts. 

The other man was Doctor Makashino, looking about the most sour and irritated I'd ever seen him. _Which is saying some, he's been one long grouse throughout this trip._ He looked at the Captain but said nothing, obviously waiting. 

Yamamori smiled at his shipmate. "You can tell them, Makashino. Tell them what I told you. That the girl was playing fool's games and I'd just wanted to scare her a little. Right?" 

Makashino was silent a long moment and it occurred to me that he was probably as deeply involved in all this as the Captain. They were probably in it together, both involved in the smuggling operation and both involved in Toshini's death. 

"True. I _could_ tell them that," Makashino agreed grimly. "But I'd be lying." 

Yamamori's eyes widened, then narrowed. "I see. You're the one. You're the one behind those poor people in the bilge tank. _You're_ covering up, trying to pin the crime on me!" 

With a sigh, Makashino turned to Uncle Heizo. "As I told you, sir. Starting fifteen years ago this man and I were assisting illegal Chinese immigrants in getting to America. Thirteen years ago, however, the weather was so incredibly hot that I'd told him it wasn't safe, that I'd blow his cover if he took anyone on. He assured me he wouldn't." He glared angrily at the Captain. "He lied. Put those people in the bilge tank while I was off ship. I didn't find out they were there until it was far too late." 

"LIAR!" 

Makashino shrugged. "I have evidence and I fully admit my own part in this. I kept things secret I had a wife to protect and the victims were dead already. I was wrong to do so, but I didn't want her hurt anymore than she already had been. We quit then, though. It would have been impossible to clean out the bilge tank without risking someone finding out." 

Yamamori was practically frothing with denials but Makashino continued, inexorably. "It wasn't until this cruise that I began to realize that Toshini's death wasn't the accident I thought. Yamamori was behaving strangely and all the phone calls and peculiar incidents that started after the troupe came on board made me realize that something was up. When Miss Akemi was injured I confronted him and he told me that I was too deeply involved to reveal what he'd done." 

With a howl of laughter, Yamamori shook his head. "Oh, of course. Try and pawn your crime off on me. _I_ confronted _you_, you bastard! You were the one who tried to kill the girl! That's why I wanted to scare her off this game!" 

I couldn't help but put my hand on Heiji's arm, ignoring that stupid shock I always got from him nowadays. _It's all going wrong, somehow. We can't prove a thing. _

*** 

HEIJI: 

Kazuha's thought was so strong it went right past the Professor's devices, sure sign of how agitated she was. She didn't like a murderer getting away with it anymore than _I_ did. Fortunately, I had an answer. I coughed for attention. 

My father looked at me and I returned the gaze with interest. For a long moment he met my eyes, a question in his expression that I could only answer in one way. This was what I was and there was no getting around it. At last he nodded and I looked at Yamamori. "There's just one thing. Whomever it was who tried to kill Akemi-san used some sort of device to melt the rope from the inside so that it would break at the right moment. Something long, pointed and very hot." 

Yamamori laughed. "Then there's your answer right there. Makashino works with electronics. Even with that left arm of his gone he could use a clamp to force the twist apart enough to let him get a soldering iron to the core." 

Kazuha stiffened and I nodded at her. She knew what I was thinking and I let her speak. "But that wasn't a twisted rope. It was braided. There's no way he could have worked the threads apart with one hand and a clamp, not without melting the outside of the rope, too." 

I continued. "The Doctor handles his prosthetic arm pretty well, but there are limits. You need two good hands to force a braid like that apart enough to get at the center." As the Captain stared at me, I smiled. "Then there's the fact that while both his soldering iron and your wood burning stylus has burnt plastic on the tip, your stylus is the one that shouldn't have anything of the sort on it. It's not possible to work with electronics without getting some plastic on the soldering iron, and it's pretty damned hard to clean off." Before he could object I added, "Oh, yes, and then there's that bit of ash on your pants yesterday. I rather think it was from your efforts with Akemi-san's rope." 

Slowly, angrily, the Captain glared at me, then at my father and Superintendent Shiratori. "Are you going to believe this brat?" 

"My son may be an interfering nosy pain in the ass," Dad said quietly, "But he's a _smart_ interfering nosy pain in the ass. We may not be able to prove your involvement with Toshini Yuji's death, but I think there's more than enough evidence to book you for the deaths of those immigrants. Makashino showed me where you keep your books – in _your_ cabin. We also have two other witnesses who may well be persuaded to assist us in that matter. As for your attempt to kill Akemi-san being part of a joke. Well, I don't think anyone watching, my son, Kazuha-chan _or_ Superintendent Shiratori, were laughing." 

*** 

KAZUHA: 

I could feel the tension in Heiji's arm lessen as Yamamori seemed to melt into uncertainty. He had a plausible story but we had a lot of evidence against him and he was beginning to realize his position. He turned a hate filled glare at Akemi-san and her brother. "Stupid fools," he growled. "You and your stupid little ghost game. Did you really think I was fooled?" 

Akemi-san looked ready to speak, but Heiji shook his head at her. He had a peculiar look on his face, as if he were steeling himself for something. I felt him brush his left hand against his wristwatch. Then he reached out and put his hand on the Captain's shoulder in what looked like a friendly gesture. "You're right, Captain. They look nothing like real ghosts, do they? Nothing like the man you pushed over the railing to his death. Nothing like a man chopped up into itty bitty pieces by your ship's propellers. Nasty way to go, really. I nearly died that way myself, once. Still get the shudders sometimes. Doesn't the thought of it scare _you_?" 

Yamamori ignored him, staring off to one side, face going white as a sheet. I glanced that way myself, unable to resist looking at whatever it was he thought he saw. For the very briefest moments I thought there was a man there, dark haired, pale, covered in blood and staring coldly at Yamamori. Then he was gone. Yamamori choked, wheezed and fainted, much to Superintendent Shiratori and Uncle Heizo's annoyance. 

As the adults dragged Yamamori away, followed by Doctor Makashino, I turned startled eyes on Heiji. He raised a brow at me. "What is it, moron?" he asked and I realized I'd gone pale too. "Stop staring into space like you've seen a ghost." 

"I" I couldn't say anything. I didn't dare say a word. I didn't want him to laugh at me. Heiji was always so grounded, so utterly certain of the world as it was, that I was sure he'd never believe what I'd thought I'd seen. 

Akemi-san sighed. "Thank God. Thank God it's over." 

Rounding on her, Heiji glared angrily. "Yeah, you stupid fool. No thanks to you." 

The woman's jaw dropped and she stared at Heiji angrily. "But." 

"You could have been killed. You'd be dead right now if we hadn't figured out where you were going and what you were doing." Heiji shook my hand off his arm and turned to face her. "What good do you think dying would have done?" 

Taking a deep breath, Akemi-san shouted into Heiji's face, "I was avenging my father! He would have wanted." 

"The _hell_ he would have wanted it!" Heiji's voice was lower, but all the more frightening for the sheer intensity of rage he put into it. "Your father died a horrible death. All the more horrible because he loved you and would _not_ have wanted to leave either of you. There's no doubt about that. But if his spirit isn't resting, it's because _you_ won't let it. Because _you_ won't let go of him. Not because that bastard killed him!" 

"I." 

"He loved you. Both of you. The last thing in this world he would have wanted would be for you two to die over him. He would have wanted you to live. He would have wanted you to be happy. That's what a father _is_, damnit. So screw your head back on, clean that crap off of your faces and _live_ damn you!" I blinked at him, stunned at his seeming acceptance of something that seemed so very spiritual. It just wasn't his style. He might believe, superstitiously, in my little luck bags but he didn't really _want_ to, either. 

As Akemi-san and her brother stared, Heiji swung around on his heel and stalked away, muttering angrily to himself. 

*** 

HEIJI: 

It took me almost half an hour to walk around the deck. Somewhere a bit behind me was Kazuha, trailing behind me the way she always did. It was a comforting feeling, her presence, all the more comforting because she seemed to know I didn't want words, didn't want conversation. Just wanted her there, near me. 

At last I stopped, gazing out over the sea. The moon was just rising, glittering on our wake. Somewhere in those waters, sunk deep, were what little might be left of Toshini Yuji's mortal remains. His spirit, though, was at rest, or at least I thought it was. I glanced over at Kazuha and managed a smile. "My gracious silence," I whispered. 

"Eh?" 

"Oh, nothing." I grinned a bit more broadly. She'd read Shakespeare too, but not nearly as much as I had. "Thanks, Kazuha." 

She raised an eyebrow. "Hmph. For what, moron? For not bopping you over the head when you fully deserve it?" Then she smiled a bit too. "I'm glad it's over. This was a rough case on you." 

Thinking about it, I had to agree. My new abilities had made everything that much harder to stand, but I had to. _I think I'm going to be practicing that redirection technique a lot in the near future. My ability isn't going away. If anything, I think it's getting stronger._ I wondered if I'd made a mistake, attempting to force Captain Yamamori to see the result of his deeds that way. It'd worked the way I thought it would. Aoko and Kaito hadn't seen Franky until they were practically touching me. My watch and wristband probably interfered with that normally, for which I was glad, but I was pretty sure switching the one off allowed me to transfer what _I_ saw to the Captain. _Who well deserved the sight._

"Heiji?" 

I glanced at Kazuha, who was gazing pensively out at the sea. "Hmmm?" 

"Something's changed, hasn't it? _You've_ changed. Something big." 

I laughed, a bit nervously. "Of course, not, moron. I'm still Heiji. Still the same person I have been." _Just a bit more so._

She looked up at me and her expression was so kind and gentle it hurt. "It's okay, Heiji. I don't need you to tell me. Just remember. I'm here. Whatever it is, no matter how much it's hurting you. You don't have to tell me. Just let me be here for you." 

Swallowing, I turned my eyes from hers, but I couldn't help but let my right hand, the one she'd injured trying to keep me from dying with her, touch hers. "I didn't let _you_ fall, moron," I muttered. "I fully expect you to return the favor." 

To be Concluded 

* * *

Author's Notes: 

I couldn't quite get the Captain to do the usual collapse and tearful admission of guilt, but at least he got a good view of the results of his handiwork. He should probably be glad they weren't down in the bilge tank area. 

Ke: Heiji and his dad's way of getting along is inspired by my own relationship with my father. It's probably because they're entirely too much alike. 

Mystic: I started "Pursuance" last year. The next one will probably take about that long as well, since I'm going to need some help from the Kaito fans to get it right. 

Lady_Neria: Thanks! 

I'm posting the conclusion tonight It's an epilogue more than anything else, but it should tie up the loose ends. 


	7. Epilogue

Pursuance: Epilogue - In which letters are written and plans for the future are made.   
A Detective Conan/Hattori Heiji Fanfic   
By   
Deborah J. Brown 

Acknowledgements: All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho. 

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. Not to mention reviewing even after being Beta Reader. 

* * *

(Email from Kazuha to Ran)   
December 20th 

My dear Ran, 

Yes, I know. It's amazing the trouble our boys get into. If it weren't for the fact that they just plain eat it up I'd worry more. Still, Heiji's a bit quieter than he was before the trip. Something happened aboard that I think helped him. Not the case itself, maybe Mrs. Shiratori told him something that made him think. He's more at peace with it, I think. 

I don't want you to think he's all sweetness and light, though. He's still mouthy and sharp-tongued, but it's lighter hearted than it had been for a while. A lot of the anger he'd been holding onto is gone. He and his father are still fighting, too, but that's changed a bit. It's like they respect each other a bit more. Maybe that drop in the bilge tank was good for them, though I wouldn't recommend it myself. They both _stank_ to high heaven for a while there. 

I was telling you I think I have an inkling of what's troubling him. I'm not sure I'm right. If I am, though, it's something I can't help him with or protect him from. Nor would he let me if I could. I guess I'll just have to be there for him. Someone's got to keep an eye on that boy. He'll always be in trouble otherwise. 

Kazuha. 

*** 

(Letter from Hattori Shizuka to Shiratori Amiko)   
December 21st 

My dear Miki, 

I have to thank you. Your help over the last few days has been invaluable. I'm not sure what you said to Heiji, but I believe it's helped him. 

If the old Talent of my mother's family's _has_ returned full force in him, then there isn't much to be done. I would like, one day, to convince him to work with you, but first he has to admit to the ability. I'm just glad that our experiences years ago gave me someone to turn to at this time. No one has shown the Talent for years now and I had thought it gone. Had it not been for your skills as a fortune-teller I would never have believed Heiji might be similarly affected. 

In any case, it was wonderful to see you and we shall have to find more time to get together. It was especially wonderful to see Nosey I'm sorry, Ninzaburo-kun again. He's grown quite handsome and I'm sorry his relationship with that young lady he works with didn't work out. Still, he's young and I'm sure that he'll be all right. At least this case helped take his mind off matters, even if it did mean cutting short our cruise. I'm just glad Akemi-san's troupe was able to pull through with a replacement mystery to make up for all the troubles the ship was going through. 

Again, thank you for your help and I hope to see you again at our next Kendo reunion. 

Sincerely, 

Shizuka 

*** 

(Email from Hattori Heiji to Kudo Shinichi, by way of Agasa-Hakase's address)   
December 23rd 

Hey. 

Yeah, the case was a bit of a pain, ghost wise, but at least I got the satisfaction of seeing that smug twerp Yamamori taken down a few notches. Don't know for sure he saw anything when I tried touching him, but he certainly acted a lot more nervous than he used to be. I only wish he could have _felt_ it as well. 

Tell Ai that I understand her opinion but disagree. Sure, it could just have been my picking up on Akemi-san's pain and fears but that doesn't explain how I knew what it was like to be chopped up. I don't want to talk about the nightmares I had that first night after the case was over. Maybe it was my own fault, I hadn't slept for hours and I guess imagination could have been the culprit but _damn_, it felt realistic. Sorta glad Kazuha woke me up. Whatever it was I picked up on the ship is gone now. Toshini himself _and_ those poor souls down in the tank. I only hope they're at rest. 

Anyway, Franky seems to have decided to have a head now, though he only shows it to Kazuha. She's commented a couple of times that she's dreamed of a nice doggie taking care of her. Doesn't seem to bother her that it's just a head, but she's a weird girl anyway. Still, it's sort of nice. She's stopped pestering me about why I keep staring off into space and I haven't had a complaint about the static shocks in a while now. Makes me wonder if she suspects. 

I don't know why, but I sort of hope she does, as long as she doesn't push to find out for sure. I like having her around. Don't you _dare_ tell her I said that or a little bird will be telling Ran just how much a certain missing detective misses his girl. 

Oh, I hear from Dad that a white-clad thief of our acquaintance is threatening to make an appearance in Osaka. Time to salt some tail feathers, I think. Wanna help? 

Hattori. 

The End 

* * *

Author's Notes: 

If you want to know what Shiratori's mum looks like, watch Iron Chef. The judge named Kasuko Hosoki is my template for her general appearance and some of her behavior. 

I like to think that what happened in Ysabet's "Conversations Among Ghosts" is part of what made Shiratori all depressed. Go read it. She does GOOD stuff. 

The next story will have Kaitou Kid returning. Tentative title, "Hitonaiya Park". Gotta check with someone who knows Japanese to make sure on that one. 

Kesenaibs: Thanks. Heiji's first appearance didn't really make him seem like much, but he's been growing on me each time he appears. 

Ke: Thanks! 


End file.
